Jocko Podcast 216 w/ Echo Charles: Why You Should Never Give Up. The Memory Endures, by Reg Curtis

2020-02-13T22:20:38Z

Join the conversation on Twitter/Instagram: @jockowillink @echocharles 0:00:00 - Opening  0:02:24 - The Memory Endures, by Reg Curtis--Analysis. 3:15:35 - Final thoughts and take-aways. 3:29:16 - How to stay on THE PATH. JOCKO STORE Apparel: https://www.jockostore.com/collections/men Jocko Supplements: https://originmaine.com/origin-labs/ Origin Jeans and Clothes: https://originmaine.com/durable-goods/ Origin Gis: https://originmaine.com/bjj-mma-fit/ 3:48:07 - Closing Gratitude.

AI summary of episode

and like he says helpless and by the way this is a half an hour of this suddenly we were given continuing suddenly we were given the order to hook up I did so and waited the engines cut back on the approach to our drops on we descended to around 600 feet with all sorts of rubbish whizzing by and the plane pitching and tossing like a toy in a vast vacuum then there came a terrific explosion as our tail was hit the order jump man jumped screamed in my ears and I tumble through the doorway into the void below so they are craft finally takes a devastating hit he doesn't he doesn't mention whether the aircraft made it or not he just says that it you know the tail was hit hard I can't imagine that's super easy to fly a plane what's the tail's been blown off now he gets on the ground again fast forward a little bit on the ground about 300 yards in my left was the main coastal road to the town of Katania and enemy traffic wasn't tremendous confusion to my rear I could hear Italian voices and about a hundred yards to my right Germans wrapping out orders then now the road came a 15 strong German patrol they could have been parachutists judging by their dress and head gear fortunately I was not alone when they were just a few yards off and we opened up on them there were some grunts, groans and sickly yelps then silence we slipped on in the direction of the bridge around which our men were by now silently killing harassing and panicking the German Italian defenders at night small battles raged unceasingly and we were pinned down for a long time by mortar fire when daylight broke though I saw the for the first time the vast mountain scenery at the base of which we had been fighting again I'm just jumping through stuff then the sun starts to come up it became warm and then the heat became intense a typical you're never you can never just be comfortable it's always like freezing cold or too hot you would you he had 15 minutes where it was warm and then they were too hot there had been no firing for some time and I realized that the enemy was no longer with us scanning the countryside I could see burnt out cars Italian tanks and ammunition dumps the smell of burnt bodies and oil filled the air I was glad to move on such a confusion of our brigade such was the confusion of our brigade drop that come daylight three men from the men from three parah discovered they spent all night fighting alongside the men of first pair without realizing it at the bridge it was clear that there had been a fierce battle the pill boxes had been rushed and dealt with ruthlessly here the brigade mustard approximately 180 men but the three inch mortars in ammunition had not arrived and there was a lack of communication without side units wireless sets those are radios had been either incorrectly netted back in Africa were damaged on the landing or just did not arrive we learned that German parachutists from the third regiment of the first fallshemierger division had dropped simultaneously on our drops on the previous night so we must have indeed have brushed shoulders with them when we came upon that 50 man patrol how crazy is that you're jumping into a drop zone and the Germans are jumping in there too and then he grows as things start to escalate he's talking around how hot it was like hot as in not heat temperature but hot as in enemy action little wonder things were so warm the area within an approximately two mile radius of the bridge was festoon with 88 millimeter and 20 millimeter guns pill boxes machine gun pits and also a few coastal guns and we were engaging with crack German troop including pair troops they presented a good target whenever they got too near the bridge you could not miss but word run around that our supply of ammunition was now drastically low conserve ammunition in fire only when you are absolutely certain of a kill was the order but do in due course members of the first and third pair of battalions at the northern end of the bridge with Drew to join us at the southern end the enemy was getting harder to ward off as tanks and tanks began to appear now we got tanks enemy tanks on the scene we were using captured Italian 40 millimeter anti tank gun along with our own anti tank gun the battle worked up to a terrific climax the Germans were sending their best troops in an effort to shift us their pair of troopers probing for weak spots and allowing no respite food was in our haversax but there was no time to get it it was fire fire and keep on firing finally there was a wall at about 1830 or soon after giving us a chance to take stock maybe the Germans wanted to regroup I checked my ammunition and found only four rounds left plus one in the chamber at 1930 we were ordered to withdraw in order to avoid capture and go in small groups we made it off in a westernly direction toward the gona loung the gona lunga river if we could use the river and the road running parallel to it as a guide for a couple miles perhaps then we could be clear of any enemy concentrated attack so these guys are basically bagging out of the area and as they're doing their doing in small groups at one point as darkness fell we came upon a deserted farmhouse but decided not to enter as it was quite near an abandoned flat gun pit we thought both sides would be we thought both could be booby trapped it was approximately zero 200 by now we were very tired in hungry we dosed off in an orchard 20 feet from the edge each man at the base of a different tree so as to be less conspicuous so they spend the night in this orchard and then they set off once again we saw no more of the enemy via lentini we reached Augusta some 50 miles from Primisol Bridge finding the town in our hands it was a great site to see so many of our own troops and tanks and so they continue on reaching Syracuse without miss hop on this on the 17th of July just four days after dropping in Sicily we soon set sail arriving back at Sous in Tunisia on the 20th our first parachute brigade group had not only suffered heavily in the North African campaign but in Sicily too where we had lost a further 300 men killed wounded or missing it was time to rest refit regroup and reorganized and we also got to relax so I mean this this is a group of men that are now just hardened combat that's and yet there's no war there's no end to this in sight nowhere I could hear the gutteral tang twang of German civilians as they ran hell for leather on each side of the train to take cover from what must have been our own aircraft overhead one of the guards just the moose and left it to us looking down to the track I saw that it was much too high for me to jump with only one leg the some of our party of eight jumped and took cover I found my pants and don't know whether it was fright or the dysentery that was still with me the planes returned they were to rocket firing RAF typhoons which specialized in ground attack I recognized the sound as they got nearer there was another woosh and then another followed by an ear splitting explosion the carriage shook so violently that I thought we were going to topple over as always in such a task it was over in no time with such a tax it was over in no time and all of a suddenly peaceful again so they have to go and repair this train and then finally we had reached a snug little village called Myzberg on the German side of the border with Belgium and once again we see some nicer treatment our first job was to be cleaned up and we were taken in pairs into the shower I was asked to remove all personal items from my pockets and all clothing was to be cleaned and few amigated don't worry you'll get everything back and English medic told me here put this on it was a sort of cotton smock which tied in the back was just long enough to cover to the knee first in came a great big American with the same garb with forms like tree branches he lifted me bodily with the ease of samps and himself mind you I was down from 14 stone to just over eight since last September and to translate that into American English he weighed 196 pounds in September and now he weighs 112 on reaching the shower is made ask can you stand on one leg bud sure I said samps and it taken his smock off and proceeded to bathe me while herkilly steadyed me I was carried back to a most luxurious bed with white sheets God knows where the when they scrounge the sheets but trust the yanks there were approximately 40 wounded there a mixture of English French and American with four American and two English orderlies one of the walking wounded act that is a cook all the others doing menial tasks they did not mind though so he's in this pretty car can I even say let's say let's just say and improved situation and improved situation is what is he and that goes on a little bit or even he calls it the luxury things began to live in up outside the rumbling in the distance grunier and groups of bejragled weary looking Germans plotted through the village the wounded born by horse and cart field guns were manhandled the luxury of any motorized transport being afforded to senior officers only who clearly wished to withdraw in his dignified manner as possible leaving hunter officers to do all the donkey work along with the shoots and and suffer all the humiliation of being seen by their own countrymen it was a pathetic sight like a cutting from the first world war film archives as the dawn approached the throb of motorized transport and tanks was very near so he's seeing the Germans kind of walking back he's seeing the officers in the vehicles the German officers in the vehicles and the German troops walking or being carried if they were wounded and years tank activity right which is kind of an indication where you have tank activity but you see people withdrawing with horses and garages that's an indication that perhaps the tanks that we're hearing are good friendly as dawn approached the throb of motorized transport and the tanks was very near you could hear the squeak of the tanks wheels rubbing against the caterpillar track thirsty for lubrication edging and shunting into position for the impending advance in the village that noise that a tank makes in the city is just wind well who is the awesome and and it's also horrifying like these guys when they're hearing the German tanks outside when they're in that that battle whether about to be overrun the horror can't even imagine of tanks coming and now the joy which I got to experience some of the joy in the body of hey the tanks are coming it's glorious and god bless the tankers and here these guys feel in the same way the American orderlies were jubilant they're here lie me the yanks are here exploded Hank anyone who get up walk hop or propel themselves in some way momentarily forgot their wounds in discomfort they peered through the cracks and the doors through the windows I could not see anything from my window only the Nazi flag of the local garrison hanging listless like the enemy itself bill one of the english medics came gashing and not knowing which way to turn in his excitement there's hundreds of them there's hundreds of tanks out there bloody and then they get off that train they get on another train they get on this other train after shunting around a bit and hitching up to another train we rolled off again it was dusk cold and pretty dimo all told then someone struck up our version of the song bless him all and their version of the song was salt them all salt them all belong in the short and the tall salt all the sergeants and the W.O. ones salt all the corpus and their bastard sons for we're saying goodbye to them all as back to their billets they crawl you'll get no promotion aside of the ocean so cheer up me lads saw them all and he says it seemed we had joined a group of British soldiers by this was by way of an introduction they finally make it to bremen we pulled in slowly and as the train came to a stop there were sounds of doors opening in the hustle and bustle of people getting off and making their way along the platform and then it happened an air raid warning wind out civilian military personnel immediately began scurrying about in the military I noticed did not hesitate to shove anyone else out of their way a little shot at the German military the civilians are getting pushed out of the way so they can get to cover the air was humming with aircraft american Boeing b-17 flying fortresses and our guards quick in their step way ahead of us periodically turning to beckon us to hurry it up we entered the shelter being enough for about a hundred people and after a lot of pushing and shoving settled among amid the gliers and remarks thrown our way I was happy to let it happen but somehow I'd been pushed and guided into a corner of the shelter away from the door if a bomb lands two near the the Germans take it blast take the blast and cushion any effect on us I thought there was a wooden batch fixed to the wall I dropped to it exhausted three guards it spread out between us and other occupants and when the bombing started in earnest the shelter shook I was sure wanted landed close outside because I felt it's draft reminding me of being blown off my feet in North Africa only that time it was just 50 feet away everyone fell silent as the drone of aircraft and wind and crash a bombs went on with ever increasing ferocity for a good hour before dying down to a steady drumming and an occasional distant explosion I must admit I always think of these bombing runs as taking like maybe 10 minutes but we're talking about a good hour people began to chatter this is once everything's kind of faded people began to chatter as interfered dispersed and external barvato took over I could hear the gnashing of teeth glances accompanying finger pointing in our direction the crowd is getting rest if in a big man started pouring forth with words of abuse a big frow about 40 years old worked her way near to us until she was only a couple feet away I felt the murt moisture of her spiddlesty argued with the guards about the privilege we had being allowed to be in the same shelter as the German people I gathered that was a crux of the matter that was the crux of the matter at this point a heavy booted foot came out and started propelling my way I parried firmly with my right hand and the boot just brushed my balls coming to a harmless glancing blow on my left thigh the guards stood firm restraining the woman and trying to calm everyone down it was only then that I noticed a familiar sound in French our guards were Frenchmen constricted in the German army anyway they saved my nuts from being cracked there must have been another hours wait at the station another back going to transfer again there must have been another hours waited the station until I an old army type lorry with solid tires turned up or sorry they were waiting for truck I couldn't care less at this stage provided I didn't have to hobble on crutches before long I saw the large POW camp ahead with its eight foot high wire fences and guards platform sticking up like store thumbs all around there was a collection of dingy looking huts dotting the interior the lorry slowed at the gate and the senior guard jumped down through the hand to go through the handing over ceremony then the big wood and wire gates creed open and the lorry jerked into the compound where out we tumbled I was exhausted and sweating as if I just come out of a Turkish bath my stump was throbbing I stayed lying on the ground where I landed managing to support myself on one elbow while the rest of the party sat knelt or remained standing with the aid of their crutches I didn't want a welcoming committee but wished that someone would show us where to go one of the guards was busy having a chat and laughed with his mate eventually he gave us the go ahead and the party moved off slowly and weirdly I found myself left behind I tried to get up but I could not muster enough strength to make it and you're waving your they can't see you so you need I would always have a aircraft panels what we call them aircraft sing with panel which is just bright fluorescent orange and I could whip that thing out really quickly and then it then you become a lot more visible same thing with the aircraft overhead well in a body it didn't take long before everyone was carrying that because and they were carrying big ones too like a platoon or like an element that was going in a building would have a big giant one that you could hang out a window everyone we are here hey friendly forces we are here so even this guy World War II that bright yellow silk scarf in important signaling device at the hand he says I I wondered how the rest of the men were going to fare on this hop I was just getting used to the new faces like Frankie Panzer Manzer Bill Silberry Terry Brace Dick Bingley Dolly Gray major parent brown Sid Oxley Guv Beach with his top hat the Germans will surrender in surprise if he takes him with that I thought Joe McReedy patty McCormick and Captain Joe Gardner that mean just I just had to read those names for two reasons number one because they sound like the best bunch of characters you could ever hang around and also so everyone remembers that all these people that we're talking about they're all people unfortunately sergeant Busty Everett had fallen ill and died at Born we were from all over the country and beyond and on the whole one big happy family it was daylight when we clambered into trucks and headed toward the arrow drone at Barxton Hall everyone was tense but ready to go come what may he goes on here our objective was to capture and hold the bridge straddling the rine at our nm my first parachute patty and was to seize the high ground to the north our escorting typhoon spit fire and Mustang fighters were weaving between the decodes and gliders as we cross the English channel tension began to mount in my plane we approach land on the other side and could see the area that had been flooded to try and stop her and peed the advance of our land forces i was admiring the landscape when the order rang out action stations hook up green light on go being number 13 night a few long seconds to wait as I shuffled forward then i felt a slight pat on my parachute back and again found myself tumbling out of the doorway into that familiar open void my parachute opened once more obediently and i drifted down to earth without difficulty after a good three point landing i was now an enemy occupied territory except for the occasional machine gun fire and some blasting from enemy machine gun placements the landing had been unopposed and the whole dropping north zone north of he'slam was packed with gliders and discarded parachutes everyone soon collected themselves and rendezvous to their perspective points the time was just after 1500 on Sunday the 17th of September 1944 the time was just after 1500 on Sunday the 17th of September 1944 leaving the drops on we made a way quickly along the track running alongside the wood west of wolfhees and south of the railway the end of the track lined up with a road running parallel to the railway turning right here and then over the road onto the railway sidewalk we noticed our way toward wolfhees station suddenly there was a loud explosion up ahead and some machine gun fire and now this is when things start to get hot our company still upfront became engaged in a fierce battle facing armored cars, mortars and machine guns it was getting dark now the whole battalion laid doggo for a while to try to avoid further detection we lay up in the woods for some hours pushing on occasionally buck cautiously at one point in time unbeknown to the enemy they completely surrounded us in the semi dirt After a fast fast forward after a fast bumpy journey the Jeep tore through Usterbeek passed the net the original headquarters at the heart and steam hotel and pulled up sharply in the drive of the taffled berigo tell a few hundred yards farther on airborne medics quickly unstrap me and took me inside setting me down on the floor opposite a window in the entrance hall the hotel taffled berigo had been German field marshal walther model modells headquarters prior to our arrival the previous Sunday and we were now using it as an improvised military hospital it must have taken a few knocks as it was now in absolute shambles as usual the British Tommy had managed to brew up even in such hazardous conditions and I was given a mug of tea and a bar of chocolate my first foods in sleeping in England two days earlier I had not touched my ghastly iron ration I tried to sleep but with the interruption of shelling and mortar fire prevented that when night fell I just long for daylight to come again I hated the nights it was bad enough to be meeting angry Germans in battle but it was worse to do so while I slept the next day Wednesday I was grateful to be taken into the operating room ingeniously rigged up in the kitchen of the hotel so he gets some he gets some preliminary worked on on his wounds and of course the brits I know I've talked about this they like to brew up their tea and they will do it that's how they roll I was returned to the entrance hall where the den of battle embolitating the wall outside maybe look out I was surprised to be is to see a German wandering about so pictures is you're in a hospital you just got like the shrapnel cut out your leg they sit taken set you down and now you're watching the battle out of window and you see a German wandering around he took up a stand position by the door and then began pacing up and down just then there was a loud crump outside and debris plaster and glass fell all around I looked to see where that one landed and the German I had seen outside only a few moments ago was now sprawled out killed I presumed by one of his own mortar bombs but that should tell you with a situation there there's Germans outside the window walking around I was set down at the head of the stairs to my right leg glider pilot who had a face and arm injury amid all the wounded who covered most of the landing area came a wounded man walking our eyes met did I know him I hardly knew anyone they were unrecognizable clotted up with blood and dirt then up the stairs belted some combat paras and we asked them how it was going I had to had to capture this because this is just as british as it gets so these there's like we just said there's Germans walking around outside this places total shambles and they see a couple paras and he says hey how's it going and one of the paras answers not too bad not too bad could be a bit better before disappearing back down again that's like that's a no factor response what with the continuous den of battle outside in my leg getting more painful through lack of proper medical attention I called for father Benson to offer a few words of comfort so he came and put me at my ease later he was too as wounded by tank fire into the building I'm sorry to say that he died from those wounds and was buried in the grounds of St. Elizabeth's hospital on the following day the disposition was frightening once again under statement the British under statement because as far as I'm concerned everything up to this point is completely horrifying on the following day the disposition was frightening our men were still doing their damnness but the Germans were slowly closing in very slowly mark you for they lost heavily and had to fight for every inch of the bloody ground they got there with things getting hotter still I was moved again to what was thought to be a safer spot just to the other side and along the landing area suddenly there was an all mighty explosion in the room on my right men were already wounded once twice were hit again in somewhere killed there were pittiest cries coming from that room it was at this time that major John Wadi of the 156 parachute battalion who had started his parachute days in India when the battalion was first formed was wounded again and two English medics and a Dutch nurse were killed a medic now came out cradling a form in his arms the chapy carried could have been dead or unconscious he was covered in blood and his arm was shattered and hung prophetically by his side his left leg bandaged from his first wounding Christ I wish I were outside there was another resounding crash of bombs followed by curses perhaps I was better off in here it was bloody awful for everyone everywhere outside the situation was getting completely out of hand further enemy reinforcements were mustering around the perimeter in the form of powerfully armed tanks from the SS Panzer divisions with long barreled high explosives and armor piercing shells the passage where I lay ran from front to rear the hotel and I was facing the rear with a grandstand view of the battle through a gaping hole in the wall where once there had been a window now and again one of our men would break cover to stock the enemy and the enemy would repeat the process with the multiple accompaniment of shell burst tank fire machine gun fire curses and yelps of pain I heard the ominous sound of an approaching tank I couldn't see it but the squeaking of its caterpillar wheels grew even louder then it came into view it's great gun traversing from right to left picking its way through the trees it stopped for a few minutes to feel its way and then the gun barked out sending a shell across my front to an unseen target the other wounded were lying huddled together trying to afford each other protection the floor was littered with debris blood and glass and there was an incest and wind and explosion of mortar bombs together with the shrieking crash of artillery vibrating the very foundations of the building which I thought when it's some point tumbled down I don't know what time it was when the shelling and gun fire stopped but after a den of the last six days it felt very strange to suddenly be so much quieter there were still spasmotic firing in the distance and a little shelling but nothing to worry about we began to converse more freely gone on strike Jerry one man almost shouted except that his head half his mouth bandaged from a shell splinter wound well the next few days seemed to drag on forever with my leg giving me much more pain now than it had during the first 24 hours after I was hit and so obviously these guys are rallied up and they're suffering but it doesn't mean that they're safe continuing on there are so many shells landing in on and around the building plus the occasional burst of machine gun fire spattering the inner walls that I imagine we must be slapped bang in in the front line or somewhere in no man's land by the way that's the field hospital there were hundreds of wounded in enemy included as well as Dutch people caught up in the fight so many that some got moved to the hotels and acts across the driveway and any man with flesh wounds or injuries that did not hinder the use of a firearm was ordered outside to fight so if you could fight now it's time it was now the 23rd of September and I was lying still at the head of the broad stairway and there was commotion down below those ruddy hunds again said the glider pilot there was a shuffling in German orders were being wrapped the out then some SS troops dashed up the stairs a sinister looking type about 20 years old led the way and was coming right out of it coming right at me I found myself looking straight down the barrel of his schmizer his trigger finger shaking I didn't bat an eyelid I just did not want to have set him and give him a cause to let rip he was glaring at me with red BDI's Christ this is it I thought I had heard of other wounded being shot up but my luck was in any past me by he and two other SS men had a good look around and took a and then took up firing positions at windows in rooms leading off the landing as they started to fire out Colonel Warwick dast up the stairs swearing and rebuking them for firing from a clearly marked red cross building discipline took over they look to find and so on but with fingers handling their automatic's hesitantly they reluctantly obey the officers command and stop firing so as I talked about early with the and clearly these are some Germans that have respect for the law of armed conflict and they there which let's just start with this we're in the hospital building and now we got the the Germans in the building using it as a firing position I don't even know what to say about this like what what is that even how do you even translate that into into reality your wounded your your hospital is getting mortar to machine gun and then there's German enemy soldiers in your building firing from inside your building walking around looking at you and I mean it's total insanity right the guys are 20 yards away before they get the the order not only to fire but to advance continuing on this is now they're doing a coordinated attack while we pushed on with two paras and three paras brought up the rear the British 139th brigade attacked on our right in time the pimple on this name of like a little null was retaken and our brigade proceeded to press home the final assault amidst devastating artillery and mortar fire from both sides tragically we found that we had gone a little too fast for our 25 pounders to increase their range quickly enough and we suffered heavy casualties from our own fire at daylight I passed a jock Pearson crouched by a rock bellowing into a field radio and none too pleased with the person on the other end what do you think you're doing he wrote you're killing all my bloody men so little horrible blue on blue scenario happening man everything but everything seemed to be in our favor now even the weather was kinder and we must have advanced about eight miles under a curtain of continuous fire both until both Italians and Germany were ready to give in and we're running to be captured so think about this scene with just massive fire and you're advancing under that fire for eight miles they get um they're they're doing this they're continuing to advance in this part and here measure schmets buzz the area spraying the ground spasmotically and causing those nearest to drop quickly into convenient holes we pushed on at a steady pace passed demolition guns past demolished guns and supplied dumps the air stinking with a pollen butchery I glanced and stinctively towards a shell burst fifty yards away as I watched its jet black smoke belt skyward my gaze was transfixed by something odd on the ground I wanted if it could be a human drawing nearer I saw that it was the roasted body of a man in the sitting position he must have been driving a scout car or light vehicle as there were small pieces of charred twisted metal spread fifty feet around with dismembered arms and legs torn and blood soaked uniforms littering the black scorched soil the aroma was diabolical someone accidentally brushed the sitting form on passing and the body simply disintegrated with a sickly sound fast forwarding a bit the smell of burnt flesh coated in my direction and I quickly and I quick into my pace to get clear of it plotting on in these awful humid and dusty conditions I think I felt almost immune to wearing this and the shocking sights of war nothing seemed to be able to stop us now and this is again you got to read this book but this site sort of concludes this section the first parachute brigade group was not destined to take part in the final push to tuna's our role in the campaign had come to an end and we were withdrawn from the line so ending five months hard slog and again that we were just burning through this book and I'm skipping so many sections this stuff is this is five months this is half a year just about of this type of fighting originally trained as shock troops in Tunisia after the initial parachute assaults we had served as plain infantry but that's just the way the wind blew for us metals were plentiful and all ranks had earned them eight distinguished service orders 15 military crosses nine distinguished conduct metals 22 military metals three raw digger and one legion to honor in their own way even our German adversaries had recognized the brigades fighting ability by naming us the red devils for those who are there though the price of success was unspeakably high we had lost more than 1700 men killed wounded or missing so again I hate to burn through five months of insane fighting and I'll take a dig at red right now like he's so matter of fact about stuff and he only hits on the high points I'm hitting on the high points of the high points right just insane insane to think about that for five months so from there they're transported from Tunisia back to Algeria and they spend time training for a drop into Sicily a parachute drop in Sicily which once again you're fighting in Africa look it's really tough conditions in Africa now you're getting closer to Germany like you're going into going into Sicily you know what's waiting for you it was hoped that if Sicily could be taken it might prompt an Italian surrender a large proportion of my battalion including myself now went down with this entry goes in and talking about a lot of that this is no this is just it's like no nothing's easy between exercises we acclimat acclimatized our reinforcements to use every they're used every type of enemy weapons including Schmeizer automatic which we found superior to our own standgun so now they start preparing for this mission in Sicily there were three bridges to take in Sicily and the password for them was to be desert rats with the reply kill Italians as the plane took off chunky said well this is it our second operation I tried to act normally but could feel the sweat running down my cheek so once again he's stifling some emotions in here they go getting on this getting ready to do this drop and this is just it's just crazy as we drew nearer to our objective and at a thousand feet I could see the flack and tracer zipping past the wing of the aircraft for 30 minutes we dodged everything they threw at us so when you see when you see the depravity that that human beings are capable of well that can actually expose the fact that you really can cherish all innocent let us in a little dog and these guys arrived back home get stationed the first battalion get stationed at Grim's Thorpe Castle and at this point they know something really big is in the air and he says here in August men coming from our old training area of Tatten Park reported seeing thousands of tanks there like a giant tank park sure enough in mid-September we were finally setting off somewhere I checked over my gear one gammon bomb two dot three six hand grenades combined pick and shovel webbing equipment with small pack two ammunition pouches and bandlear with three oh three ammunition water bottle mess tin iron ration field dressing camouflage net scarf triangle shape air recognition bright yellow silk scarf tied around the neck for ready for instant use rifle and an escape kit comprising of a silk map of Europe a small button compass and a strong file the size of a nail file that was about it except for a kit bag strap to the leg and parachute plus may-west life jacket in case we finished up in the drink I felt like an overdue pregnant hippo and didn't know where to put anything else though still I added 200 cigarettes two bars of chocolate and some boiled sweets it's interesting the yellow scarf for recognition and he specifically says tied around the neck for instant use and it's interesting we we kind of I always carried one the basic reason why I was carried one because I was a radio man when I was a young and listed guy and I used it at times I had learned the value of it signaling helicopters and signaling boats in the jungle like if you and the weird thing is you when you're in a boat let's say you're in a river along the jungle there's so much jungle to look at that it's really hard to see someone waving their hand like it seems so obvious when you're waving at some waving at a boat and we had our work cut out here there was agonizing shrieks of pain right and left to me as I passed unrecognizable as I passed men unrecognizable soaked in blood being tended to a barrage splendid medics those unsung unarmed heroes Sam cost her and Frankie Thompson reached the summit and searched out and dealt with the enemy with no ceremony whatsoever as Sam told me afterward Frankie was lunging and tossing men with his bayonet as though he as though they were sacks of straw Frankie was a big chap usually very friendly and quietly spoken but an action a different man picture that bayonet on your rifle and your throwing men off of it lunging and throwing men with the bayonet as if they were sacks of straw Frankie Thompson done play amid the turn all the turmoil and dead and wounded of both sides the curtain of fire had lifted and it was not a sound this is once they get up to the hilltop looking around the hilltop only a few of our men could be seen moving among the twisted forms our R T and S companies had suffered very heavy casualties more than half of the battalion officers had been killed or wounded he as they kind of get settled on the top of the hill he as they're preparing for a counter attack which they know the Germans are going to do he gets sort of tasked with going around and helping and gather up the sick dead or the wounded in the dead he goes on here setting about the job of collecting the wounded was something sickening as I gazed upon the scene of our once able and live comrades now quite still or with torn limbs I wondered whether there was any such thing as civilization I bet hard on my lip and went about my task with grim determination looking around for someone to help I noticed a lad who is in the same troop as me early in 1941 hello taffy and one of you been up to like a lift that's how he greets this guy cheers lofty and like I said lofty is the nickname of red cheers lofty is nice to see someone alive he said weirdly he was in a sitting position and apparently been hit by no fewer than five bullets they were all clean flesh wounds in the calf five four arm and one through the apex of his penis and all rather uncomfortable but no broken bones he was pretty well saturated with blood but cheerful let's try a fireman's carry I suggested he'd had a shot of morphine no we're declaring war on the third and in September the third of September we're declaring war and then in September two weeks later you're on the ground in France ready to get some in the forward positions so now they they start moving forward from France in the forward positions we took over deserted village called Tromborn about six miles from the German border as it was snowing our fighting patrol decided to make use of sheets to create so they're in these areas that are pretty much abandoned and so they're going into houses and finding stuff as it was snowing our fighting patrol decided to make use of sheets to create sets of camouflage gear white suits gloves over boots hats and coverings for rifles hunting around we've I found a sewing machine thinking that we might as well do things the easy way as a fighting patrol we didn't fire a shot there's more matter of listening and night reconnaissance in our white outfits carrying only rifles and are limited other gear we traveled more comfortably than we had previously which I skipped over the part where they're basically doing long long movements to get into positions on one night reconnaissance we became over confident don't what that happened and one of our lads knocked up against the enemy wire it was a still bright moonlit night we were in no man's land just 75 feet from the forward German positions they're talking of stop to abruptly as luck would have it we were crawling so we froze hugging the ground for an hour without moving on another occasion we were on our way back to base when from and by the way on that one they they make it out on another occasion we were on our way back to base when from the direction of a bend in the road 50 yards away we saw a group of figures we were about two miles from our lines and knew that no other patrols were out so these men must be the enemy our patrol leader gave the signal a lie still we were straddled each side of the road in semi-open ground but fortunately the night was not too bright the group passed by ten men in all spaced six to eight feet apart they were well-armed but war no white suits keeping them in view and moving only our eyes we lay unnoticed if we had been spotted they would have had the advantage because of their automatic weapons and also the fact that they as they passed down our center we could not have fired on them for fear of hitting our own men never separate your forces which is hard when you're walking down a road because when you're walking down a road you're going to be in a what's called a staggered file which means you got guys on either side of the road right which generally we're trying to stay off the roads anyways but I became oblivious to fatigue and plotted on at the end of the day's training I would stretch out on the hangar for absolutely shagged on passing sergeant Sid Oxley might prod me and say something like not bad lad not bad do better tomorrow eh get stuffed was the usual quiet reply as I slipped a well earned cigarette between my lips and drew hard so there's a pretty good chunk of this training in there and again all this training was they just created this they just created that this was new where like we're making up and props one thing when I look at the course of my entire life there's like a couple moments in time where things made an impression on me and one of the things that made an impression on me as a little kid was I had these toy soldiers I had a lot of toy soldiers but the British commandos from World War II they had little ladders they had little grappling hooks they had boats and they had beanies right you know what I'm talking about I when you're a little you don't know what a beanie is I know a beanie is and I'm sure there's a bunch of other you know like a a fatherly instinct right or a motherly instinct or uh here's another interesting one some people like to travel right so people want to move around a lot some people want to stay home there's like different levels of instincts that people have some people want to settle down and hold what you got some people don't want to do that at all so people have various instincts so I would say that what they did in this training is hone the instincts that people did have and get rid of people that didn't have enough of the instinct for war and you know once again talking about seal training they're not really teaching you anything they're just getting rid of people that don't have the right instinct and even like these you went through these things where the environment sort of provided these lessons no matter how like over or covert they were like provided to you through the environment like you know like a like a farmer or something like this someone who's sort of grew up just working hard as a way of life you put them in another environment we're working hard will show itself or whatever or they'll work hard so now this is the land they move and now they get into a situation we were machine gun costly one minute we were in put in buses and the next taking cover once with Pat Dolan and chunky I dash for safety across an open ground and slid into a hundred feet slid into a hollow 100 feet from a derode as three small specks of mishrishmets came diving straight for us from 4,000 feet I lay on my stomach looking at the aircraft through my camouflage net scarf as they came in fast much closer now and three of them open fire one concentrating on the road transport the other two honor men scrambling for cover on each side of the road bullet slash the ground ten feet from us kicking up fountains of dust bloody hell pat that was close said chunky they circled and came in for another run this time really low only about 50 feet from the ground a couple of our act-act guns let fly jerry let rip and muck seem to be flying everywhere mainly rock splinters and dust as one aircraft clattered by I saw quite plainly the pilot with a white scarf around his neck you fucking fool you might have killed us someone shouted and then let out a bellowing laugh amazingly after all that strafing no one was seriously hurt and only two of our vehicles were rendered unserviceable as time went on things continued to hot up and the buses were soon abandoned in favor of foot slogging so again this is like a horrifying thing to think about these measures met one-on-nines coming down and strafing you with machine gun this pushing forward a little bit in the book there another situation then they turn towards us three stucodive bombers approaching us at about five thousand feet the sky was clear invisibility was good it was most weird not knowing whether they were interested in us or just passing but they were interested in us all right the leading pilot made half a roll and nose down the preliminary commencing that awe-inspiring stucodive angle of 85 degrees as it wind nearer and then we get this in August I received a telegram telling me that my home in south London had been hit by a sea mine and I was given compassionate leave to return what the hell was a sea mine doing inland it must be a mistake I thought however apparently there was such a thing which came down attached to a parachute so that's what the Nazis were doing and so he gets little leave to go and check things out and so he goes and here we go this is him finding his home upon reaching Grove Park as I turned into fairfield road I immediately saw that our house had received a direct hit there is now just a heap of debris where once it stood half a dozen houses and dozens more were badly damaged the local ARP warden told me that not one person had been killed because everyone had taken to their Anderson air raid shelters my parents were both okay and staying with some friends of mile of the road it was a shock to see our home destroyed but after all I had seen in France I think I must have become immune to any real emotions and then this happens in October as a result of a directive sent out by our prime minister Winston Churchill we received a letter which was read out to us by the regimental sergeant major volunteers he shouted for a new type of fighting soldier are required he glanced over the top of the paper BDI's registering some amusement soldiers he carried on to be trained as commandos and parachutists now I know that you would not wish to desert the regiment but anyone wishing to volunteer one-paced forward march glaring as he did so he took three stealthy steps towards us well you all chicken then there was not a titer nor even a hesitant shuffle meaning everyone was just standing fast I fought back to the days in France I thought of a carnage of the British prisoners of war the warric regiment heard it into a field just outside Dunkirk and machine gun to death by the waffen SS I thought of my home being blown to smithereens and how the Germans were blocking my ambition to become a London policeman I took a pace forward before it was too late and some time passes as they try and get everything organized and then it continues on I was to join number two commando later renamed the 11th special air service battalion and still later the first parachute battalion in Britain at that time there was little no knowledge of the techniques of parachuting so everything had to be thought out very carefully there were no special types of parachutes for jumping from aircraft and no suitable aircraft the whole lot had to be devised developed and tested all too often with fatal casualties or severe injuries just learning how to conduct parachute operations from scratch so they start their training and the training is is really really hard as you can imagine here we go now we settled down to some real soldiering and I actually begin to enjoy the tests thrust upon us yeah devastated mentally devastated that's why it's one of the best things well not a lot you know there's a lot of people that don't get out of that bed right they don't get out of that bed because as soon as you get out you're going straight to the surf zone and people don't like that man I mean you can hear seals talk about it guys can get scarred from liking the ocean for years man for years they they don't want to go in the water they don't want to do it because because they just they use it as an implementive torture me I didn't care you know like I surfed and it was all good you know let's go get some sort of how back to the book so he's home so do you what do you think do you think that that's like good like is that and of course I'm gonna say is it the best way because we know it's the best way but is that kind of the best way to do it because it kind of seems like it could be the best way to do it like it's definitely it's definitely you're not gonna get neat but it still seems like you got all those methods we'll say like from you know like you weren't born with that you know kind of thing you know it seems like you know you got

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Episode transcript

[00:00:00] This is Jockel Pondcast number 216 with echo Charles and me, a Jockel Willick. Good evening, echo. Good evening.
[00:00:09] In attack, most daring, in defense, most cunning, in endurance, most steadfast. They performed
[00:00:19] a few of arms which will be remembered and recounted as long as the virtues of courage and resolution
[00:00:28] have the power to move the hearts of men. And that right there is Winston Churchill speaking
[00:00:40] in honor of the British First Airborne Division at honor and him. He was actually making that
[00:00:49] statement on September 22nd, 1944 in which the battle was not actually even over yet. And we did
[00:00:59] cover that faithful battle on podcast 94 from the book called Medit R. N. by Jeffrey Powell
[00:01:09] and it's just an incredible book and an account of the British Airborne Division in that battle
[00:01:19] where they lost almost 75% of its strength. And from that point on was for all practical purposes
[00:01:31] out of the war. So who were these men that made this stand? We saw one when we covered Jeffrey
[00:01:42] Powell's book, but obviously there were thousands more each one of hero and also each one a
[00:01:54] a human being. And I recently got a book in the mail that someone sent me. The book was written
[00:02:04] by one such man, one such human being. The book is called The Memory In Durs and it was written by
[00:02:12] a man named Reg Curtis. So let's go to this book and meet and learn and honor a hero of a human being.
[00:02:31] Here we go. Chapter one's called Pray Loot to War as a youth I carried out milk. I carried
[00:02:38] out a milk ground in the early morning and a newspaper around in the evening, earning four
[00:02:43] shillings a week, which helped towards the cost of the special clothing I needed as a choir boy
[00:02:49] at St Augustine's Church near Grove Park Railway Station. When I left school in 1934 at the age of
[00:02:57] 14, I got a job at Elliott Brothers and Electrical and Mechanical Engineers firm in Lusham.
[00:03:04] I cycled five miles to and from work Monday to Saturday and learned quickly under the
[00:03:10] washful eye of the charge hand learning how to operate a milling machine, center lathe, hydraulic
[00:03:17] press and finally working as a captain, a center operator. I had to just read that part because
[00:03:25] you know you always hear about the old man who had to go five miles to work in five mile home
[00:03:30] uphill both ways. There you go. There you go. Redg Curtis was doing it. After three years I was
[00:03:39] beginning to set and by the way he's like 14 years old at this time just a kind of FYI. So
[00:03:46] after three years I was beginning to settle in for a long-term job when a series of small
[00:03:51] strikes put the damper on my enthusiasm. The persistent industrial action prompted my decision
[00:04:00] to join the army where such strikes were not tolerated. You kind of get the impression this is
[00:04:06] odd guy, right? He's there having strikes whatever he says where where where can I go where that's
[00:04:12] not going to happen. Oh I know the army. My father had been in the Royal Army Service Corps and my
[00:04:18] grandfather was the chairman of the Royal British Legion so the army seemed natural enough in my
[00:04:23] family. I was encouraged by my uncle Fred himself a regimental sergeant major. I chose the footguards
[00:04:30] because after a short-term of service I would be acceptable to the city of London police. In those
[00:04:35] days you had to be at least five and five feet ten and a half inches tall to be a policeman.
[00:04:41] I was already six one and still growing. I presented myself to the guards recruiting office in London
[00:04:47] and enlisted with the first or grenadier regiment of the footguards. And flowing forward a little bit
[00:04:55] that there was one corporal Tucker. So now he's you know going through the boot camp scenario.
[00:05:02] There was one corporal Tucker. My squad instructor who took great delight in marching us on
[00:05:08] to the frozen parade ground with extra zest. Then put us on a charge if we slipped up.
[00:05:15] So you not only received a sore rump but also got extra parade as punishment. Another approach
[00:05:21] was to march us toward a large puddle and then give the order to mark time. Come on knees higher.
[00:05:26] He would shout from a safe distance, scrutinizing each man and turn and looking for any signs of cracking.
[00:05:34] We were just numbers at Caterham.
[00:05:38] Though this day I say it did me no harm as it instilled a self-discipline that has served me well
[00:05:45] through life. That's what you're going to get. And you know you and I were talking earlier about
[00:05:50] basically normal face. Basically look I'm not going to show that this is not fun. I'm not going
[00:05:57] to show. And you were saying that you learn if you say look no factor right? No factor. I got to do
[00:06:06] this hard thing. No factor. Not hey I got to do this hard thing so I'm going to get mentally
[00:06:10] all fired up. No no just no factor. And you learn over time that saying no factor keeping it in your
[00:06:17] head actually you get better at it. And all of a sudden hard things you just go I'm just going to do it.
[00:06:23] I'm just going to attack it. That's one of the things that this type of military training does.
[00:06:29] And even he's saying look the stuff that this guy's going to go through is a thousand times harder
[00:06:35] than doing mark time march on the parade ground for an hour. Thousands of times harder infinitely
[00:06:40] harder. But there's a little less in that he learned. And plus he's British right? And the Brits
[00:06:48] with the stiff upper lip that's that's like a whole culture at least it used to be because the
[00:06:54] culture's changed a lot and Britain but this warrior culture of hey they're literally England
[00:07:00] if you think about it the stiff upper lip which is hey we're just going to go do that's that's the
[00:07:05] no factor culture of hey we got something to do cool we're going to go do it watch this with this is
[00:07:11] England what do we got we got some hard for us cool no factor step up or let move forward.
[00:07:19] Fast for in a little bit so he gets like one of his first jobs is is sort of
[00:07:25] guarding the the royal family and so he does some of that and then moves on to kind of the regular
[00:07:33] army going back to look soon enough I left the glamour of Windsor and the comfort of
[00:07:39] Victoria Barracks behind it was sent to pair bright in Surrey where every guard's men goes
[00:07:45] for field work craft and firing on the open range it was my duty to be able to handle and fire
[00:07:51] a gun in preparation to protect King and Country in an emergency but trust my luck to a fallen
[00:07:57] fall and fall of bad weather it was not really my cup of tea to prostrate myself on a wet
[00:08:04] and windstrip flying right range with a sergeant breathing down my neck whispering words of encouragement
[00:08:09] and added supply of rainwater running over me in torrents from his ground sheet cape
[00:08:16] this is this is not the way you'd hear a US Marine described.
[00:08:21] Being on the range in a rainy day you know that's such a British way of explaining this and then
[00:08:27] he continues on it must have done some good as I made first class shot though for what purpose I was not yet
[00:08:33] sure so guess what this is supposed to world war one I think I want to say this is 1939 when he
[00:08:38] enlisted so there's maybe 30 maybe 38 actually I think it's 37 yeah 1937 he joined the army
[00:08:44] so there's you know world war one was what 20 years in the past that was the war to end all wars
[00:08:52] sure there's a guy in Germany that might begin a little up at he but he's saying hey look I
[00:08:57] know I gotta learn how to use this gun but not really sure what I need to know how to do this for
[00:09:04] continuing on fast-forward a little bit in early in 1939 I was transferred to the home of the
[00:09:09] British Army at Aldershot in Hampshire I'll never forget the atmosphere of the night of the tattoo
[00:09:15] which tattoo is like a word for a parade basically when our battalion marched on dressed in navy blue
[00:09:22] trousers with red piping down the out seam outside out seam of each trouser leg long-sleeved
[00:09:29] white wader type jackets with brass buttons and the guards peaked cap with red band around the crown
[00:09:34] carried out without a word of command our drilled display lasted for 20 minutes the finale being
[00:09:40] the only time a command was given the battalion will advance in review order by the entire by the
[00:09:46] center quick march 450 men moved his one and the reason I had that once again when you just think
[00:09:54] about human beings right psychologically in that moment look you're a cog in the wheel that's all you
[00:10:03] are you're a pawn on the chessboard that's all you are but and he and he says it
[00:10:11] like that feeling that you get of being a part of something that's literally bigger than you are
[00:10:19] hey I'm just I'm just a guy out here in a uniform but there's 450 of us moving as one
[00:10:25] and there's some part of human instinct that likes to be a part of that tribe
[00:10:31] ummm continue on in August some mysterious goings on began unusual apparatus in the form of
[00:10:41] digging equipment both powered and hand operated appeared along with wheel barrels and mountains of
[00:10:46] little sacks which turned out to be sandbags lorries loaded this lorries loaded with sand
[00:10:52] would dump their contents at various points and instead of the usual drill parades and kit inspections
[00:10:56] we found ourselves filling these bags with sand and building barriers I thought it must be some
[00:11:01] sort of giant exercise and had no idea that it was in preparation for real enemy
[00:11:07] being confined to the barracks with its own shops and theater we didn't mix with the public
[00:11:13] so new very little ball matters of national importance indeed in those days the serviceman was
[00:11:18] not allowed to discuss politics and we would put on charge if caught attending a political meeting
[00:11:23] so these guys are completely isolated and I'm thinking about even when I joined the navy and
[00:11:29] we go on a ship we didn't know idea what's going on there's no internet yet and so we had no
[00:11:34] idea what was going on in the outside world and even even living on base I mean you at least
[00:11:40] when even when I joined you had key cable news right you knew that the CNN was on and you're watching
[00:11:46] CNN and you're knowing what's going on in the world there's no CNN there's no TV there's nothing
[00:11:53] so these guys are completely isolated they're living the all the stores are going to are on base
[00:11:57] the theaters on base so there's living on base paying no mind to what's going on overseas
[00:12:02] what does put on charge means getting trouble just in general yeah just in general like oh he
[00:12:07] got in trouble yeah okay so it's not like a you know because it's varying levels of you
[00:12:12] you're trying to any covers and he I'm glad you brought that up because it's he uses it throughout
[00:12:17] kind of the book because there's you get you can get one on charge for all kinds of stuff yeah
[00:12:21] and so it's just a general term that means being in trouble maybe written up maybe sent to the
[00:12:28] brig for a little time whatever but you know you got put on charge yeah no court martial
[00:12:32] nothing like this but could be you keep it up yeah if you well it could be too you like if you
[00:12:37] did something really bad you just got okay you know he's gonna get put on charge okay yeah I got
[00:12:41] you and yes is any level of trouble is what I perceive to this maybe a brick military
[00:12:46] person will let us know if I'm wrong continue on on the third of September war was declared
[00:12:55] with Germany and I realized what all the sandbagging was for within days my battalion was mobilized
[00:13:03] reservists were called up and along with thousands of other troops two weeks later two weeks
[00:13:09] later we were in France I think I was quite unperturbed at the possibility of getting killed after
[00:13:17] all I was a soldier trained to kill so why should I have any qualms you know what's nuts about this
[00:13:24] and I mean putting into perspective world war one which was now 20 years at hindsight was so
[00:13:30] insanely savage and yet this guy still regges like yeah you know what cool I'm not worried about
[00:13:41] getting killed I'm a soldier and you think about the casualties in World War one had to be
[00:13:49] had you had to beat it shows you it shows you how quickly we can forget right what war is
[00:13:57] because if you witnessed a day on the battlefield and World War one there's no way you'd want to do
[00:14:02] any of that ever again but whatever your 20 years old you're crack shot with that rifle
[00:14:13] time to go get some continue on in the forward positions we oh yeah and by the way now I'm just
[00:14:18] jumping past hey they get there and by the way like I said they get to France two weeks later
[00:14:23] this isn't like okay we're doing a prolonged preparation no we're declaring war on the third
[00:14:29] and in September the third of September we're declaring war and then in September two weeks later
[00:14:36] you're on the ground in France ready to get some in the forward positions so now they they start
[00:14:42] moving forward from France in the forward positions we took over deserted village called
[00:14:47] Tromborn about six miles from the German border as it was snowing our fighting patrol decided
[00:14:51] to make use of sheets to create so they're in these areas that are pretty much abandoned
[00:14:56] and so they're going into houses and finding stuff as it was snowing our fighting patrol decided
[00:15:00] to make use of sheets to create sets of camouflage gear white suits gloves over boots hats and
[00:15:05] coverings for rifles hunting around we've I found a sewing machine thinking that we might as well
[00:15:10] do things the easy way as a fighting patrol we didn't fire a shot there's more matter of
[00:15:16] listening and night reconnaissance in our white outfits carrying only rifles and are
[00:15:20] limited other gear we traveled more comfortably than we had previously which I skipped over the
[00:15:25] part where they're basically doing long long movements to get into positions on one night reconnaissance
[00:15:32] we became over confident don't what that happened and one of our lads knocked up against the enemy
[00:15:38] wire it was a still bright moonlit night we were in no man's land just 75 feet from the forward
[00:15:45] German positions they're talking of stop to abruptly as luck would have it we were crawling so we
[00:15:51] froze hugging the ground for an hour without moving on another occasion we were on our way back
[00:15:57] to base when from and by the way on that one they they make it out on another occasion we were on
[00:16:03] our way back to base when from the direction of a bend in the road 50 yards away we saw a group of
[00:16:07] figures we were about two miles from our lines and knew that no other patrols were out so these
[00:16:12] men must be the enemy our patrol leader gave the signal a lie still we were straddled each side of the
[00:16:17] road in semi-open ground but fortunately the night was not too bright the group passed by
[00:16:23] ten men in all spaced six to eight feet apart they were well-armed but war no white suits
[00:16:29] keeping them in view and moving only our eyes we lay unnoticed if we had been spotted they would have
[00:16:35] had the advantage because of their automatic weapons and also the fact that they as they passed
[00:16:41] down our center we could not have fired on them for fear of hitting our own men never separate your
[00:16:48] forces which is hard when you're walking down a road because when you're walking down a road you're
[00:16:52] going to be in a what's called a staggered file which means you got guys on either side of the road
[00:16:56] right which generally we're trying to stay off the roads anyways but sometimes that road is the
[00:17:01] smartest place to move you're going to make a bunch of noise moving through the brush and you can
[00:17:04] get on that road and move really quietly so it's something that can happen but then when they see
[00:17:08] the enemy they all get off the road what's the quickest way to get off the road it's on the
[00:17:12] room side that you're on and what does that mean you're on both sides of the road now in the
[00:17:16] enemy walks in between you and you start shooting at the enemy you're actually shooting each other
[00:17:22] so you have to be cognizant of that which these guys were continuing on when I came into contact
[00:17:32] with two Germans and this is another thing about this book the first of all this book is not
[00:17:36] very long but the other thing that's that's crazy and British and no factor and stuff up a lip
[00:17:42] is he'll he'll describe the most insane things that were factually crazy as like in three sentences
[00:17:51] of what and just really matter a fact you know so although there are times where he
[00:17:58] definitely adds some color but that's the way he is just just kind of matter fact very British about
[00:18:04] the whole thing when I came into contact with the two Germans for the first time myself I gave them
[00:18:09] five rounds of rapid fire to range of 50 yards as they edge towards me under the cover of garden
[00:18:14] walls and fencing they were my first shots in anger I didn't see the two Germans anymore so maybe
[00:18:19] they were lucky shots guardsman baitman and Elm's doubled past and shattered for me to come
[00:18:26] on and we continued into open country making our way over to a bridge and halting roughly after
[00:18:30] roughly a thousand yards where we took up defensive positions air activity was increasingly
[00:18:37] tremendous measurement one-on-ones were machine gunning at low level and had strafed our troops
[00:18:43] coming over the bridge only a few minutes after I crossed there's these these talking about these
[00:18:51] and I I don't know if I just never really thought about it this much detail but he talks about these
[00:18:58] you know the enemy aircraft coming in at low level and strafing them all the time and if you
[00:19:04] were seeing a measure Schmidt they're just really bad ass looking aircraft and a lot of the
[00:19:10] German aircraft they just were I mean all the aircraft back then right I mean you got spit fires you
[00:19:15] got corsairs you got mustang you got a p-38 line but you got awesome looking aircraft that and if you
[00:19:21] can imagine this too at that time those were the most technologically advanced things right
[00:19:28] so they didn't look they didn't look old right they looked like a x-wing fighter from star wars
[00:19:36] right that's what you were seeing you were seeing this magical machine that was just
[00:19:41] and now this thing is pointing at you at an altitude of like 300 or 400 feet and just dumping
[00:19:49] machine gun rounds at you and can you imagine the noise that they make with those big giant engines I mean
[00:19:55] yeah and so he talks about that a lot in these books and that's kind of the first encounter that
[00:20:03] he brings it up the other thing that scares me about it is it's sort of random you know it's
[00:20:08] almost like mortar fire because the aircraft's gonna come down if it's pointed two degrees in
[00:20:13] that direction you're fine if it points two degrees in your direction your dead and the rounds are
[00:20:18] hitting you know at a spacing of six feet or whatever when they get through ground so if you're
[00:20:24] in between those two six feet you're totally fine or you get hitting the face or in the head
[00:20:29] and you're dead so there's this element of chance going on as well which I never like
[00:20:36] I never liked that element of chance continuing on leaving the area and traveling mainly on foot
[00:20:43] encountering few enemy on the ground but experiencing continuous shelling and bombing from the air
[00:20:48] we came to a stop by the river Asuka near the city of Tornai six miles from the French border
[00:20:56] here we went into a counterattack during which a very well-liked platoon commander Lutenette the Duke
[00:21:03] of Northumberland was killed Lance Corporal Harry Nichols and guardsmen Nash were ordered to
[00:21:09] flush out some bothersome machine gun as 600 yards from our position that's British right you're
[00:21:15] going to describe machine gun as as bothersome the section I was in gave covering fire
[00:21:24] what what what what is that all about yeah that's called cover move fundamental to our left
[00:21:29] they picked their way with caution Nichols and a light machine gun under each arm
[00:21:33] Nichols with a light machine gun under each arm I didn't see them anymore but they must have
[00:21:38] completed the mission because there were because the enemy fire ceased after a while Lance
[00:21:42] Corporal Nichols was posted missing presumed killed but later reported as being alive in enemy hands
[00:21:48] he was awarded the Victoria Cross for this action in the semi-built up area on the river the
[00:21:54] Germans afforded very good target practice for me I found that I just could not miss but we were all
[00:22:01] getting weary through lack of sleep and proper food no one can live off scraps or from scavenging
[00:22:05] for long without feeling the worst for it and enemy numbers were increasing tenfold or so it seemed
[00:22:13] continuing on we came to another stop this was the last time I took part in a coordinated attack
[00:22:18] with the third battalion grendendier guards we went into a bayonet charge
[00:22:26] I say again we went into a bayonet charge at court to cure
[00:22:30] setting off I felt very scared and all sorts of things went through my mind like what the hell
[00:22:38] am I doing here oh yes I joined the army to become a policeman want a laugh the muck was flying fast
[00:22:46] bullets winding and splattering and I crouch lower to dodge them all I went with the rest my 16
[00:22:54] inch and field bayonet blade fixed and protruding at the ready ready ready for what the only thing I
[00:23:00] had ever stuck with a bayonet was a sack dummy then I saw them in the swirling smoke human beings
[00:23:07] not sacks real Germans blimey I trouched on wrenching my ankle in a pot hole on and on until the
[00:23:15] order rang out charge charge I began to double now with my bayonet thrust at full on guard
[00:23:25] those figures growing bigger and bigger until they were just a few yards away among the din
[00:23:31] and yells of pain there were dead bodies from both sides littering my approach I was a foot from
[00:23:37] the two Germans went suddenly they both dropped their rifles and reached very high chattering
[00:23:43] something about comrad I was so bloody amazed and relieved that I said come on then I'll take you
[00:23:50] prisoner which is just that paragraph for me to think through because I'm thinking when I see
[00:23:58] those Germans you know what I'm doing I'm shooting them right I'm not going to continue with the
[00:24:03] bayonet charge right I'm not expecting to take these guys prisoner my battalion was now badly
[00:24:14] cut up and he used the term cut up meaning shot up meaning wounded injured he used that throughout
[00:24:19] the book with numbers well below effective fighting power and we were ordered to attach ourselves to
[00:24:25] any unit and make our way to done Kirk though no reason was given and here I was stuck with two
[00:24:32] German prisoners the journey was nerve-racking with hordes of refugees jamming the roads and making
[00:24:36] military transport movement almost impossible lorries guns in French aged 39 hotchkes tanks were
[00:24:42] off and seen abandoned inditches rendered imoval but clearly not by enemy action what was going on
[00:24:51] were we throwing in the towel so he's seen all these abandoned vehicles and they're being destroyed
[00:24:56] by friendly forces only because we don't want the enemy to get ahold of our tanks and he's
[00:25:02] trying to figure out what's going on and obviously anyone that knows anything about history knows
[00:25:05] that they're heading for done Kirk to leave the route was an absolute shambles with military
[00:25:12] and civilian gear constantly getting estranged rumors were plentiful now such as the story
[00:25:17] that leapled third of geard of Belgium and his army were capitulating towns all over France were falling
[00:25:24] into enemy hands French general jiraud had been taken prisoner to pile on the agony the
[00:25:30] Germans not lit up on their bombing or machine gunning one bit and their slaughter of refugees was
[00:25:34] unnecessary and sickening to see we did what we could in the way of tending to civilian wounded
[00:25:41] using their own clothing or bedding for bandages while their dead were either left covered
[00:25:46] left or covered with something to hide their torn bodies and agonized faces even cattle grazing
[00:25:52] in the fields had not escaped the bullets Craig and lay bloated through lack of milking or blown
[00:25:57] apart by shell fire the carnage spread for a good two miles after seeing those poor
[00:26:03] wretched civilian so caught up my occasional wounded soldier the occasional wounded soldier did
[00:26:09] not seem quite so bad my two German prisoners appeared to be as disgusted by all of this as I was
[00:26:17] and you're gonna see throughout this book the impression that he gets of the German as you
[00:26:21] could see that there's definitely a wide range of Germans that they encounter obviously some
[00:26:30] completely hostile but there's some that clearly are not are not totally engaged in the Nazi
[00:26:39] attitude and there's plenty there's it's very interesting to hear as he interacts with people throughout it
[00:26:46] continue on we reach the outskirts of Dunkirk to find a mass build up a French and British
[00:26:50] soldiers with transport tanks and artillery pieces jamming the roads like a London rush hour
[00:26:56] the next five days were a mixture of hell, hunger and fatigue and I think it was only thanks to
[00:27:02] the fatigue that I overcame the hell and the hunger I know it was five days because I put a
[00:27:08] nick in my rifle butt each morning when roused by this visiting stucco's and mishrschmits so they're
[00:27:14] getting bombed and they're getting machine gunned every morning during daylight the appointed beach
[00:27:19] master a British officer mustard officers and NCOs from all regiments and brief them to organize
[00:27:24] parties of men to tend to wounded bury the dead and scavenge for ammunition and food I found it most
[00:27:31] distasteful removing tins of bully beef and biscuit remains from corpses but at least I still had my life
[00:27:39] the beach was littered with abandoned lorries and trucks as well as army staff cars with wheels
[00:27:44] missing and doors hanging off as I wandered around going about my task among these mutilated
[00:27:49] forms that were once carefree young men I remember thinking that I must be dreaming
[00:27:57] I was brought back to reality sharply by the appearance of two enemy fighter plans which proceeded
[00:28:03] to distribute even more death in panic I dived over a corpse and slithered down a sand dune
[00:28:08] the staring eyes of the corpse saying to me get your head down and rs up after five days on the
[00:28:21] beaches it was a relief to find that it was finally my turn to get into the snake like line
[00:28:25] of troops ready for departure as I drew closer to the vast mass of a ship a mine sweeper
[00:28:33] heaving in the mucky looking swell I could see it's multi-barrel attack gun porting skyward
[00:28:39] in readiness for any stucophyters or attack or fighter attack the operator seeming oblivious to
[00:28:44] our presence one was scanning the sky with his binoculars the water was by now was well and truly
[00:28:49] up to my neck and I still had 50 feet to go I clung the rope with both hands and pushed on
[00:28:54] the man behind gave me a shove the water kept lapping over my nose and into my eyes
[00:28:59] gulping choking and spitting out the endless mouthfuls of oily, foul tasting salt water I was
[00:29:05] now quite submerged with a last mighty effort I lunched in the direction of the boat still
[00:29:11] grasping at that rope I could not have been it could not have been more than a minute that I was
[00:29:16] underwater but it felt like a lifetime clinging on tight to the rope with my left hand with my
[00:29:21] right I grew up through the rope mesh hanging down the side of the ship and with great exaltation
[00:29:26] found and grabbed it I managed to pull myself up up up and up the ship rocking and heaving with
[00:29:33] each vibration of the exploding bombs which were arriving much too close for my liking
[00:29:40] so finally he's on board a ship and they're getting bombed and strafed flopping down
[00:29:44] exhausted I was soon asleep though inevitably we had a visitor visit from a meshishment
[00:29:48] and this woke me violently as its bullets danced along the ship's deck causing large pieces
[00:29:53] of wood splinters to spew over everyone these administrators as much damage as the bullets to some
[00:29:59] unfortunate recipients I dosed off again and slept like a log until we docked in England
[00:30:08] so ended my participation with more than 300,000 others in operation dynamo better known as the
[00:30:14] history better known history as the miracle of Dunkirk so that's the way you kick things off
[00:30:21] with your with your war and I forget the time that passed and I know that the time that
[00:30:27] seemed to pass was very quick the way I just read it skipping a bunch of stuff but it was like
[00:30:32] 200 days that he was on the ground this was no hey I was there for a week no they were there
[00:30:37] moving forward fighting drawing back going on tack back and forth this whole time and you know that
[00:30:44] could be you know just that experience right there could be a whole book and it yeah on into itself
[00:30:50] right that's how that's how low key red skirt is is you know he was literally
[00:30:56] extracted off of Dunkirk after this entire campaign falls apart and he covers it in 20 pages
[00:31:05] not even 20 pages because he's getting warmed up so he gets home and he says they're followed
[00:31:17] two weeks of leave that I enjoyed more than ever before the sheer ecstasy of white sheets and
[00:31:23] pint after pint of beautiful beer and the days of roughing it in France seemed soon
[00:31:31] seemed very long ago yeah can you gotta you gotta think how hard it's like when you're going
[00:31:37] through basic seal training mm-hmm what they do is they I don't know how weak you've been awake
[00:31:42] for like two or three days and then they go hey they come up with this big story and they tell you
[00:31:47] that oh you're gonna we've we've kept you we were too hard on you guys we we have the the
[00:31:52] commanding officer just told us we got to we got to put you guys to sleep for eight hours so go get
[00:31:56] warm dry clothes on and we'll come back to you guys and we'll wake you up in eight hours and you're
[00:32:01] of course you believe it I mean back in the day we believed because we didn't know any better no
[00:32:04] one gave us any heads up there was no in for intel network providing information there wasn't
[00:32:10] there wasn't like the movies about the stuff right so we just thought oh wow that seems
[00:32:15] kind of crazy but okay and then you get all dressed nice warm clothes and you're all dry and you go
[00:32:21] even go literally get in your bed and then as soon as you fall asleep like 20 minutes goes by
[00:32:26] and they're in there with machine guns and bull horns and they're waking you up so when you think
[00:32:31] about that's that's retiny right that's a tiny tiny little thing when you compare to what's going
[00:32:37] on here this guy goes to France starving like wounded and dead everywhere fear gets back to England
[00:32:45] goes on leave for two weeks white sheets you know beer it's all good and then you know what's
[00:32:56] gonna happen you're gonna go back so when you when they did that to you uh in was that hell
[00:33:03] week and they did okay so before there was before there was like a network right I say
[00:33:10] that and you said you believed it like one they say oh we put you right was there a part of
[00:33:14] you mine like or as far as part of the reason why you believed it it's because like they are pushing
[00:33:20] you pretty hard at any point were you like hey they're pushing us too hard yeah actually I
[00:33:25] thought what you're gonna say is was there part of my mom and this would have been I would
[00:33:29] said yes was there part of my mind was like this is too good to be true this is nothing that's
[00:33:33] you know that that I would say the bigger part of my mind was saying that but I kind of was like
[00:33:37] oh I seems like a cool like they're they're telling us this right but no no before that though
[00:33:43] like at any point where they like I know hell or were you or whoever being like I know how
[00:33:48] weeks supposed to be hard but like this is kind of excessive like yeah I had no data on which to
[00:33:54] judge it right you know it's gonna be hard you know soccer no guy that quit buds and I said you know
[00:34:00] like why did you quit and he said because it sucked you know I said well didn't you know that
[00:34:05] it was gonna suck when you went there I mean that's where you're going like we all know it sucks
[00:34:10] go watch it a video you know and it's like it's gonna be it's gonna suck it's gonna be cold
[00:34:15] it's gonna be wet it's gonna be miserable it just feels like that yeah it's gonna suck like that
[00:34:21] part but then you know like it goes sometimes in your brain anyway it'll go beyond sucked into like
[00:34:26] whether be dangerous I never felt like that no I was always like all this is this is just the
[00:34:31] training right okay then yeah then that makes sense that you could go to when they say oh yeah
[00:34:36] here's a eight hour sleeper whatever you could go to well this might be too good to be true yeah like
[00:34:40] oh yeah so I'm saying what you're saying is you're sure that there's guys that were like yeah that's right
[00:34:43] yeah man of course way too hard and then those are the guys that when they get when the trick
[00:34:48] comes they get trapped brother devastated yeah devastated mentally devastated that's why it's one of the
[00:34:53] best things well not a lot you know there's a lot of people that don't get out of that bed
[00:34:57] right they don't get out of that bed because as soon as you get out you're going straight to the
[00:35:02] surf zone and people don't like that man I mean you can hear seals talk about it guys can
[00:35:08] get scarred from liking the ocean for years man for years they they don't want to go in the water
[00:35:15] they don't want to do it because because they just they use it as an implementive torture
[00:35:21] me I didn't care you know like I surfed and it was all good you know let's go get some sort of
[00:35:28] how back to the book so he's home he's taking a little time off he goes back and starts doing
[00:35:39] kind of local let's call it like local guard type activities and then we get this in August I
[00:35:46] received a telegram telling me that my home in south London had been hit by a sea mine and I was
[00:35:51] given compassionate leave to return what the hell was a sea mine doing inland it must be a mistake I
[00:35:58] thought however apparently there was such a thing which came down attached to a parachute so that's what
[00:36:03] the Nazis were doing and so he gets little leave to go and check things out and so he goes and here we
[00:36:12] go this is him finding his home upon reaching Grove Park as I turned into fairfield road I immediately saw
[00:36:17] that our house had received a direct hit there is now just a heap of debris where once it stood
[00:36:22] half a dozen houses and dozens more were badly damaged the local ARP warden told me that not one
[00:36:28] person had been killed because everyone had taken to their Anderson air raid shelters my parents were
[00:36:33] both okay and staying with some friends of mile of the road it was a shock to see our home destroyed
[00:36:38] but after all I had seen in France I think I must have become immune to any real emotions
[00:36:46] and then this happens in October as a result of a directive sent out by our prime minister
[00:36:52] Winston Churchill we received a letter which was read out to us by the regimental sergeant major
[00:36:58] volunteers he shouted for a new type of fighting soldier are required he glanced over the top of the
[00:37:06] paper BDI's registering some amusement soldiers he carried on to be trained as commandos and
[00:37:14] parachutists now I know that you would not wish to desert the regiment but anyone wishing to volunteer
[00:37:22] one-paced forward march glaring as he did so he took three stealthy steps towards us well
[00:37:34] you all chicken then there was not a titer nor even a hesitant shuffle meaning everyone was just standing
[00:37:43] fast I fought back to the days in France I thought of a carnage of the British prisoners of war
[00:37:49] the warric regiment heard it into a field just outside Dunkirk and machine gun to death by the
[00:37:54] waffen SS I thought of my home being blown to smithereens and how the Germans were blocking my
[00:38:01] ambition to become a London policeman I took a pace forward before it was too late
[00:38:11] and some time passes as they try and get everything organized and then it continues on I was to
[00:38:16] join number two commando later renamed the 11th special air service battalion and still later
[00:38:22] the first parachute battalion in Britain at that time there was little no knowledge of the techniques
[00:38:28] of parachuting so everything had to be thought out very carefully there were no special types of
[00:38:32] parachutes for jumping from aircraft and no suitable aircraft the whole lot had to be devised
[00:38:37] developed and tested all too often with fatal casualties or severe injuries just learning how to
[00:38:46] conduct parachute operations from scratch so they start their training and the training is
[00:38:56] is really really hard as you can imagine here we go now we settled down to some real soldiering
[00:39:04] and I actually begin to enjoy the tests thrust upon us I didn't realize it first that we were
[00:39:09] being used as human guinea pigs trying out new methods of roughing it and of delivering a soldier
[00:39:15] to the place of battle for everyone for everyone it was a taste test of strength involving
[00:39:21] guts sheer cunning and a determination to win some conditions were abominable but my conscious told
[00:39:30] me that this was a challenge I must rise to and again this is when you got someone that's learning
[00:39:38] through repetition how to take pain and suffering and do it in a way that is no factor
[00:39:55] jumping forward here through some training that they go through and all the training is just
[00:40:02] it's a it's a guinea pigs right the training is just guinea pigs they're just doing crazy things
[00:40:06] to these guys and then they do their first parachute jump get done with that within the next week
[00:40:11] our seven jumps had been achieved and we could not wait to sew those blue wings on the right arm
[00:40:16] of the battle's battle dressed blouse one laddy even brought his sewing kit along with him and sat
[00:40:22] down to the corner of the hanger to get them on before anyone else it was odd to see a man walking
[00:40:28] around in with and shot and manchester with their wings winged shoulders slightly forward of the
[00:40:35] rest of their bodies civilians and other non parasolgers were asking who are these blocks with the wings
[00:40:42] some sort of secret unit that's not a little bit of unit pride right this is why
[00:40:50] dichotomy of leadership when life and Seth disobeyed big jocco in what started wearing patches
[00:40:59] this is one of those things that you know I was thinking the back of my head like the if you're
[00:41:04] gonna if that makes you hold your chest out a little bit higher and you get that unit pride
[00:41:09] I'm gonna let it slide continuing on we were training both as parachutes and also for the
[00:41:17] specialized work of the commando which meant that a lot of extra work had to be put into achieve the
[00:41:23] very best end result above all above all it was emphasized it was emphatically stressed that we
[00:41:33] should never accept defeat even when up against overwhelming odds and we were taught to persevere
[00:41:39] to the end and to be able to endure great if not impossible fatigue sound familiar that's what we do
[00:41:53] that's what we do in the military taught to persevere to the end and I guess that's so much of that is
[00:42:04] so much of that is what the we know how you're taught to do that because you do it because when you go
[00:42:10] to like sealtraining or whatever there's no class that says okay when you get tired think about this
[00:42:17] no class that says that no class that says when you feel like you want to quit then you should think
[00:42:23] about this or you should say this no if you're if that's where your head is at and you want to
[00:42:28] quit there's no they don't teach you anything to stop it what what you learn the way you're taught
[00:42:34] is by oh I'm gonna get through this that's what's gonna happen I'm gonna get through this
[00:42:43] of course we have to learn a little bit about hand-to-hand combat we practice not only the use of
[00:42:50] the knife but also how to best avoid one when used against us Chinese experts taught us judo
[00:42:58] and unarmed combat with a rifle and fixed bayonet we would be flung at you or sorry a rifle with
[00:43:04] fixed bayonet would be flung at you by the instructor who yell come on lunge it me I
[00:43:10] lunged hesitantly for the first time come on long shanks lunge you won't get anywhere near me
[00:43:17] right made I thought you asked for it and I took a really good lunge but this man was an old hand
[00:43:22] like lightning he paired my blow and before I knew it I was flat on my back minus the rifle
[00:43:28] it was the same with the fighting knife and quite a few of us nursed cuts at the end of a
[00:43:33] day's training those knives were razor sharp just called real world in April of 1941 we were visited
[00:43:42] by Winston Churchill accompanied by Sir Arthur Barrett and Major General Sir Hastings is May and he goes
[00:43:51] he actually go I'm not going to tell the whole story but there's a one point where where reds has a
[00:43:57] little very short conversation with Winston Churchill and basically he's he's redges the receiver
[00:44:05] on a dison like a hand-to-hand combat display and he ends up getting from you know like a hip toss
[00:44:12] I'm imagining and and when he's done and he's gonna get him up off the ground and in Winston Churchill
[00:44:20] looks at him and says uh did you really try lad and and reds looks at him and says what do you
[00:44:28] bloody think sir and then he said Winston Churchill purses lips gave a big grin and waddled off looking
[00:44:36] delighted so that's pretty awesome interaction with Winston Churchill who by the way we haven't even
[00:44:44] we haven't even started to get into the Winston Churchill scene here on the podcast but you know it's
[00:44:51] covered you know it's covered and and that'll be I'm sure many podcasts and this is a little glimpse
[00:45:01] into the future continuing on bypassing usual military procedure various on orthodox methods
[00:45:08] and the use of small arms explosives were adopted and official eyes were shut so long as the end of
[00:45:13] the jaw and result was achieved one such stunt was with draw the safety pin from a hand grenade
[00:45:20] release the arm which we call the spoon release the arm which in turn would fire the four
[00:45:25] second fuse in the prime grenade making it really live hold it for a second and then throw it
[00:45:31] quickly the object being to make sure the enemy would have no time to throw it back and he won't
[00:45:36] refusing this dangerous venture would be subject to a variety of flowery names luckily we had no
[00:45:42] casualties to result and what makes that scariest so grenade as a four second fuse when you pull we
[00:45:48] are holding something that what do they call the arm it actually fits into the web of your hand this
[00:45:54] this this piece of like light aluminum and you when you put it in the web of your hand and then
[00:46:00] you hold the grenade that thing is stuck in place now you then you next thing you do is you pull the pin
[00:46:07] because when the pin's in there that arm doesn't go anywhere because it's spring loaded as soon as
[00:46:11] you pull the pin that there's tension on the spring that's ready to make that spoon or arm fly off and
[00:46:17] that's what arms it to blow up in four seconds the problem is is that the fuse is aren't perfect
[00:46:25] so depending on the fuse that you get could be could be three seconds could be six seconds
[00:46:32] could be four seconds like it's supposed to be is there a possibility it's two seconds yes there is
[00:46:38] so when you cook we call it cooking it off so when you cook off that grenade there's a possibility
[00:46:45] that it goes off but if you don't cook it off at all and you throw it
[00:46:53] and you can throw it back you're especially if it's four seconds and one of their choices
[00:46:56] they can either jump on it they can dive away or they can grab it throw it back if they think you
[00:46:59] haven't cooked it back well best thing do is get it out of there remember T Fred Harvey the
[00:47:05] he's getting grenade tossing fights with the Japanese so as this training is going on also
[00:47:17] we have to remember there's the mental fortitude part there's the tactical training but we can't
[00:47:22] ever forget just physically be in hard to keep on top form we had plenty of physical training cross
[00:47:28] country runs compass marches and night exercises discipline was self-imposed and any need to impose
[00:47:36] it by a superior was found upon yes that's what we want we don't want to we don't want to have to
[00:47:44] impose discipline run about in leadership strategy tactics that's not the if you have to impose
[00:47:49] discipline some strong then you're a strong your leadership is wrong because if you're leading correctly
[00:47:54] the troops will put discipline on themselves they will they will acquire self-discipline because
[00:48:00] they understand why it's important psychological and physical resistance were driven to the
[00:48:08] utmost until men could take their limit and even more but it was never enough we were marched counter
[00:48:15] marched and marched again in fair weather and in foul live ammunition fired at close range actually
[00:48:21] helped I found myself so preoccupied with making sure I did not get hit but I became oblivious
[00:48:25] to fatigue and plotted on at the end of the day's training I would stretch out on the hangar
[00:48:30] for absolutely shagged on passing sergeant Sid Oxley might prod me and say something like
[00:48:37] not bad lad not bad do better tomorrow eh get stuffed was the usual quiet reply as I slipped
[00:48:46] a well earned cigarette between my lips and drew hard so there's a pretty good chunk of this
[00:48:54] training in there and again all this training was they just created this they just created that
[00:49:00] this was new where like we're making up and props one thing when I look at the course of my entire life
[00:49:08] there's like a couple moments in time where things made an impression on me and one of the things
[00:49:14] that made an impression on me as a little kid was I had these toy soldiers I had a lot of toy
[00:49:20] soldiers but the British commandos from World War II they had little ladders they had little
[00:49:30] grappling hooks they had boats and they had beanies right you know what I'm talking about I
[00:49:38] when you're a little you don't know what a beanie is I know a beanie is yeah okay we you know when you see a stereotypical
[00:49:45] like let's say a robber in a movie and they're sneaking around and they're wearing a black beanie
[00:49:52] I think that all stems from the British commandos so for me when I saw like those little
[00:49:57] care it was a little soldiers that I had with black beanies and rubber rafts that look like Zodiacs
[00:50:04] they also had a little kayak for them too and I think all seeing those things I was always drawn
[00:50:11] to the maritime component of special operations interesting hey I want to be the close what's the
[00:50:19] close thing I can be to a British commando I see these guys with boats and and the weird thing is I mean
[00:50:26] that's that's not what these guys were doing and in fact and I didn't say this red red
[00:50:30] Curtis didn't know how to swim that's why he was so scared and he didn't he doesn't say it until
[00:50:35] he later in the book that's why he was so scared at Dunkirk that's why he's talking about how he's
[00:50:39] underwater there's nothing he can do about he's hanging around the rope because he does know how to swim
[00:50:42] and he's weighted down oh yeah but yeah the the British commandos which I'm sure will broke off
[00:50:48] from the parachute guys but that's kind of a major a major influence on a whatever six year old kid
[00:50:57] yeah I don't remember any well then again I guess I wasn't into the toy soldiers element
[00:51:04] yeah you were just getting like the regular big green toy soldiers from like the the grocery store
[00:51:09] right yeah yeah army men for sure I had NGJL I graduated from
[00:51:15] playing green army men two legit little soldiers that came from different units and I had all these
[00:51:24] different units and I knew what kind of gear they had with them I had the Africa core right
[00:51:29] the Nazi Africa core and again the ones that stand out were the ones that had like looked a little bit
[00:51:35] different the Africa core guys were canned instead of green the British commandos were green
[00:51:40] I had I had pair troopers they were these they were little army men just they were smaller than the
[00:51:47] regular army men smaller yeah they were small they were I think I think there are no main
[00:51:52] cladiers of one thirty second I think they were really small they were you know a half an inch tall
[00:51:57] maybe and maybe a three quarters of an inch tall and they still had individual soldier that bottom
[00:52:01] platform that little bottom platform huh and I would set up battle scenes you know out in the yard
[00:52:08] and play by play the way things were unfolding yeah you probably went deep though I'm like you know
[00:52:15] on the regular army men set man set the guy who's crawling in the little crawl guy yeah yeah
[00:52:21] like he would be flying sometimes in my own scenario yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
[00:52:26] he could be in that flying position well I had that I had the model planes who I also had a
[00:52:32] teacher named Mr. McGurk in high school and he had a little army he had little planes all throughout
[00:52:39] his room the classroom hanging you know model little model planes model planes I had model planes too
[00:52:45] because it was all trying to make un-make this battle scenario and the weird thing is
[00:52:52] the weird thing is about this stuff is like okay if my son let's face it if my son has army
[00:52:58] soldiers we kind of expect that just to be normal right like hey of course I mean by the time
[00:53:02] that kid was born he had more soldiers than you know I'd do with yeah but there's some instinctual
[00:53:07] thing even you you are like back in Kauai right there's no I mean your mom wasn't
[00:53:15] saying hey I really want you to be interested in military stuff right and yet you had green
[00:53:19] army soldiers yes and even though some of them could fly which was a little bit unrealistic
[00:53:24] some of them were still low crawling right some of them were engaging in battle against other
[00:53:28] soldiers well yeah so you have an instinct for war yes and I think most just like I talked earlier
[00:53:36] about the instinct for like hey I'm part of something bigger than me which is a beautiful thing
[00:53:42] if you think about it right that's a beautiful thing like I am part of this group that I'm
[00:53:48] I'm subordinate to this group as a powerful thing and it has to be countered correctly because
[00:53:54] you don't want to be someone that gets brainwashed and joins a cult right the the Bhagwan Shri Raj
[00:54:02] Nish cult sir right you don't want to be that person no no yeah that is weird now that you mentioned
[00:54:10] that like yet it would call it an instinct for a instinct for war like I think because it's it's
[00:54:15] so common like consider like G. I just okay I'll say this scenario so we we had a we're my dad
[00:54:22] built their house and he well he was one of the people who built our house so when we're digging the
[00:54:28] cesspool it's like me skeptical septic tank septic tank I guess it's like a huge hole
[00:54:34] okay super deep anyway they put the cap on it okay um this big concrete cap on it okay and then they
[00:54:40] fill it in and then but as it remains is still a big hole like the size of a jacuzzi okay about
[00:54:46] that size but it's just a dirt hole okay it's weird it's like a it literally like a dug in jacuzzi
[00:54:52] in dirt so I'm not sure what this is but going yeah that's just the way it it's sorted itself out okay
[00:54:58] um so it sounds like a foxhole yeah you don't recall it that yeah but um for and then it
[00:55:05] it rained I'm quite rains pretty much every day yeah yeah no no no so it's storming but
[00:55:11] enough to put a cool little shallow puddle in the bottom of that and mud so we're in a muddy terrain
[00:55:19] scenario G. I. Joe yeah why is so we got hills we got the top of the hill we got the valleys
[00:55:25] the you know the water scenario at the bottom and oh yeah it was like battles going on the whole
[00:55:30] time we'd like stuff on fire and your dad was no military experience your mom was no military
[00:55:36] experience your neighbors my grandfather was at a D day but I did know that yeah yeah yeah yeah
[00:55:42] that's right salute but I had no idea at this point obviously but but unless we're still doing it
[00:55:51] G. I. Joe's good guys versus bad guys killing like you know you could take up on the part of the
[00:55:55] G. I. Joe's like you could blow them all with fire crackers and then bury them and like do all
[00:55:59] this stuff you should have a very serious stuff oh yeah you were going deep yeah big time
[00:56:04] catching the whole dramatic and it's not like someone like told me to tell that and how much
[00:56:11] how much did you see how many warm movies had you seen on TV even remember I don't remember but
[00:56:17] you know you could I mean this is what like 80s we'll say like 90s maybe there's some 18 going on
[00:56:24] 18 and watch it not like religious anything so it's just we're talking to instinct that's the
[00:56:30] bottom yeah I did I mean mash was on I don't think I'd ever watch mash that's more than comedy though
[00:56:34] that's not like a but yeah it's kind of a comedy if you if you watch that show it's actually
[00:56:41] in many ways there's some pretty heavy episodes of mash for oh actually because I remember watching
[00:56:46] it when I was a kid and there's definitely I remember watching that movie going oh watching that show
[00:56:52] sometimes and you ever in suspecting the laugh but then sometimes it would be super heavy because
[00:56:57] they would occasionally inject war yeah yeah right and yeah so yeah so I think there's just an
[00:57:06] instinct that people can have at some level and I think obviously just like instinct of
[00:57:14] being something bigger than yourself that's an instinct that people can have at different levels right
[00:57:18] not everyone's a 10 in hey I want to be part of a group that's bigger than me not everyone not everyone is
[00:57:24] in fact I I would say maybe you don't even want to be a 10 because then you're just looking for a
[00:57:28] cult of joint right next thing you know you're buying a guy rolls Royces which is what you got to watch
[00:57:35] out for right so we're not looking to do that same thing with the war like instinct right there's
[00:57:38] some people that are pretty high up on that I believe I was pretty pretty high up on that because
[00:57:42] I don't remember wanting to do other things right so like when I thought about my future as a child
[00:57:48] the thought was be a soldier like that's what I remember be a commando that's what I remember
[00:57:56] so it's you know it's something that and I'm sure there's a bunch of other you know like a
[00:58:01] a fatherly instinct right or a motherly instinct or uh here's another interesting one
[00:58:07] some people like to travel right so people want to move around a lot some people want to stay home
[00:58:11] there's like different levels of instincts that people have some people want to settle down and hold
[00:58:16] what you got some people don't want to do that at all so people have various instincts so
[00:58:24] I would say that what they did in this training is hone the instincts that people did have
[00:58:31] and get rid of people that didn't have enough of the instinct for war and you know once again
[00:58:37] talking about seal training they're not really teaching you anything they're just getting rid of
[00:58:41] people that don't have the right instinct yeah that's what they're really doing they're not teaching
[00:58:47] anything you learn only because you learn from your experience but it's not an active teaching
[00:58:56] protocol yeah that's it so do you what do you think do you think that that's like
[00:59:01] good like is that and of course I'm gonna say is it the best way because we know it's the best way
[00:59:05] but is that kind of the best way to do it because it kind of seems like it could be the best way to
[00:59:09] do it like it's definitely it's definitely you're not gonna get neat well not you're gonna minimize
[00:59:14] the amount of stray voltage don't you kind of want to work with someone that has a higher instinct
[00:59:20] for winning yeah then someone that's got to be coaxed and trained yeah exactly what I'm saying
[00:59:26] that's what it seems like that's why it seems like it's a pretty good thing to me yeah it's almost
[00:59:29] like what you rather have on your football team someone that I think about this think about
[00:59:33] you're the who's the person that brings people onto the team it's not the coach but like the
[00:59:37] GM I don't know so let's say you're in control of a football team and you're gonna take this
[00:59:42] thing as far as you can this is your only job do you want the guy that you get that you have to
[00:59:47] train a bunch to get him to be able to run a fast for fast 40 or do you want a guy that comes
[00:59:54] out of the gate and he's kind of already there right this is the no-brainer of course now there are
[01:00:00] outliers that I actually want this guy that was slow but he's such a hard worker and a grinder
[01:00:07] that he's gonna excel anyways like I want that guy and guess what see what training does that you
[01:00:11] know if you're a gazelle and you're really great athlete it doesn't test you as much as the guy
[01:00:15] that's a grinder yeah but the guy that's a really great athlete has a little bit more value
[01:00:20] out of the gate than the guy that's a grinder once you show up at the team though you want the
[01:00:24] guy that's a grinder more than you want the guy that's a good athlete right yeah so almost like
[01:00:29] it's all sort of and that's not a guarantee every time because there's some guys that were
[01:00:33] freaking great athletes and they were just incredible so don't don't take that one wrong but
[01:00:39] necessarily a guy that's a great athlete versus a guy that is just has can gut through it
[01:00:46] probably I would lean towards the guy that can gut through it because he has a level of grit
[01:00:53] you're not you don't face a pull-up bar out in the battlefield right you're not you don't you know
[01:00:57] it's not there yeah and then and that makes sense I mean it's all kind of in the same bucket
[01:01:02] really but where like these are just attributes right so how does life put it he'll say um
[01:01:08] buds is just a screening process to weed out people who we don't think have the characteristics
[01:01:14] to be successful on the battlefield which is a very eloquent way of putting it eloquent so those
[01:01:19] characteristics aren't necessarily who can do the most pull-ups it's not that because look if you're
[01:01:25] doing like there's a minimum though right obviously like you have to do a certain amount of
[01:01:29] minimum is so minimum to like get to buds the minimum is so minimum it should be disqualifying
[01:01:34] if you can actually only do that many right not kidding the minimum pull-ups go to buds is something
[01:01:38] like 10 right tiny it's ridiculous yeah so just like how you said it's like okay we haven't
[01:01:45] we have a minimum and that's sort of it so who cares if you can do 50 who cares really
[01:01:51] we care about other stuff yeah well there's a well-rounded component right and and that's what
[01:01:57] makes that's the thing that makes the seal training hard is you can't just be a fast runner
[01:02:02] you can't just be a fast swimmer you can't just be strong upper body you can't just be comfortable
[01:02:10] in the water you can't just be durable you gotta be all those things and what's hard is they're
[01:02:18] contrary to each other right because being able to run 14 miles is one type of person that's
[01:02:26] going to be really good at that being able to get through the obstacle course is another person
[01:02:32] that has a lot of upper body strength this person has a lot of endurance this person have
[01:02:35] and then you add in hey you need to be able to pick up your body and sprint with them over the
[01:02:40] burn that's explosiveness so we want this really kind of middle of the road on a bunch of different
[01:02:47] things well-rounded as opposed to someone that's just really good at one particular thing and
[01:02:53] there's all kinds of people that show up that are great athletes in one category and it does a
[01:02:58] work for yes so that the attribute of all the attributes that attribute about the guy who can
[01:03:05] gut through stuff sort of lifts up all those attributes if didn't it not that high so let's say
[01:03:10] that's the main one then yes yes you want the guy who that comes naturally to rather than the guy who
[01:03:18] it might they're teaching may falter later I want that to be part of you makes sense part of you
[01:03:26] and man what a good quality to have that's the thing that's that's the thing people look we
[01:03:31] ever want to get to certain amount of talent you can decide to work hard you can decide to work
[01:03:38] hard now now there are people that say that work ethic is a talent right I get that concept
[01:03:45] and I think the reason it appears to be that way is because you get people that work so hard
[01:03:50] that you think oh that must be a talent of theirs right to have this talent that you're going to work
[01:03:56] so hard I don't I well I think that you have well you do you have way more influence over that
[01:04:03] talent than you do over your explosive strengths yeah I mean infinitely more yeah because you can't I don't
[01:04:09] know the of the seminal genetics expert but I don't know that there's a gene or a series of genes
[01:04:16] that gives you work ethic yeah I would say the answers no right I mean not not all right I mean we
[01:04:24] could check with the bro science like schools on that one yeah those but they're I bet you know when
[01:04:31] they start breaking down this genetic stuff they're going to start finding stuff about people that's
[01:04:35] going to be really interesting and some of it will be tight I mean I'm not going to say I'm Harris
[01:04:39] you know you're every decision that you make is kind of pre-plan free will but you know I'm
[01:04:46] sure Sam and I will have a chance to sit down if he has the courage to step up to the plates
[01:04:51] and have a real conversation with me but but I bet as this stuff gets uncovered they will find
[01:05:00] that there's a propensity like a propensity for focus yeah because that's what hard work is kind of
[01:05:08] is just hey look like when I was going to college and I would get to I would do one semester I took
[01:05:15] five English classes the dumbest thing I've ever done I would be so crushed with reading over you
[01:05:23] know during the week but then on the weekend would come and I'd have to read five English
[01:05:27] classes worth of reading and that was when I would be like okay I would have to like turn the
[01:05:33] switch in my head and just go fall on sit there and read for 10 hours and read and remember what I
[01:05:41] was reading so that was a switch it was like oh and I remember thinking myself I'd be talking to
[01:05:48] other people that had one English class and they'd say I'd say they said did you do the reading
[01:05:53] can you tell me what happened and I'd be like yeah of course I did the reading and they'd be like
[01:05:56] I cannot sit down and read for that long and I'd be like no hey you don't care
[01:06:01] be you like discipline see maybe I've got a little propensity to be able to turn it on or
[01:06:07] maybe it just through force of will look I want to get an A in this class why because
[01:06:14] because I don't want these instructors looking at me thinking that they got a little
[01:06:17] sunk mommy no you don't got anything on me I'll read this material and I'll know it
[01:06:23] yeah and all that it all that right there is it's so you do just so everyone realizes I'm not crazy
[01:06:29] that's just gamification that's just gamification in my head to make things fun to make things
[01:06:34] challenging right I'll do that with anything all day long you if I've got something to do I'm
[01:06:38] gonna have a good time with it yeah we're gonna have a good time with it I'm fine so when you hear me
[01:06:45] you know I was watching someone Larry Bird and he was this he's famous for talking trash
[01:06:51] to all the other players and but he works so hard he was also famous for his work ethic
[01:06:59] but I think there's a little bit of gamification right when you go I'm gonna do this to you I'm
[01:07:03] gonna do like he would come down the court be any you he'd say like he'd say uh the here comes
[01:07:08] three who wants it meaning come and try and guard me I'm gonna hit a three pointer and he would do it
[01:07:12] yeah you know there's a little bit of gamification people respond well that so that's me
[01:07:17] when I was going to college as a 28 year old man by the way I'm not talking I was an 18 year old
[01:07:21] kid all worried about how I looked and what the party well I'm worried about any of that yeah
[01:07:27] I was in there to win and in order to win I made it into a game for myself yeah oh you think you're
[01:07:32] gonna ask me you think that you're gonna come up with a question on this reading material that you
[01:07:36] gave me that I'm not gonna go to the answer to watch this so that way I'm actually banded tension
[01:07:41] actually paying attention what's going on as opposed to I don't care doesn't really matter
[01:07:47] I'm in the navy anyways who cares what I get for a grade ball ball ball ball ball I could make
[01:07:50] those excuses all day you can always take the easy path if you want to it's always there
[01:07:55] but you just gotta remember that it leads downhill and if you take the righteous path well
[01:08:00] then you're gonna move in the right direction yeah but it still seems like you got all those
[01:08:08] methods we'll say like from you know like you weren't born with that you know kind of thing
[01:08:14] you know it seems like you know you got yes it does see it seems like it's a choice that I make
[01:08:20] well and it seems also like where you like what you learned along the way what right how that's
[01:08:26] what what lessons got reinforced you know what lessons got reinforced for me if I don't work hard I'll
[01:08:32] lose yeah that lesson got reinforced I'm the over and over and over again if I don't work hard I'll
[01:08:37] lose if I work hard I can do better I might not win but I can do better and I'll tell you something else
[01:08:46] if your attitude is like if your attitude is only I'm gonna win like that's why I'm doing this
[01:08:53] you're not gonna win every time but let me tell you what your attitude can be I might not win
[01:08:58] every time but I'm gonna get your respect yeah you when you get done beating me when you get done
[01:09:06] beating me and you shake my hand you're gonna mean it because you you had you you're gonna mean it
[01:09:12] I'm gonna push you at a minimum that's what's happening so if you beat me and by the way I don't
[01:09:17] hold it against you when you beat me I respect if you beat me I know you worked I know you got I know
[01:09:21] you got after which is cool and I don't I don't held any angst whatsoever it's good actually
[01:09:28] because I know that this guy worked hard with me and I know I got to work even harder so good for you
[01:09:33] so that's that comes that's learned that's me learning as a kid oh I wasn't good at this
[01:09:41] and even I looked back in my life now like I wasn't great at soccer I never played soccer outside
[01:09:46] the soccer season other kids are running around dribble in the soccer ball whatever going to camp
[01:09:52] whatever I didn't didn't care enough didn't we didn't understand the first thing that I got well
[01:09:59] I got very focused in the sealed teams and in the sealed teams because you're going to get
[01:10:04] high caliber people not all of them but you got some people to top of the bell curve that are
[01:10:07] freaking bad asses and if you're if for me so I got these incredible athletes you know when I
[01:10:12] checked in a sealed team one I'm gonna try and think this was probably 10 of us went to
[01:10:17] sealed team one a pretty good chunk of you guys went to sealed team one there was some guys in
[01:10:21] that went to sealed team one that were total athletic studs I mean infinitely better than me
[01:10:30] and every category of athleticism you know and I knew like okay if I'm gonna hang with these guys
[01:10:36] I'm gonna have to work really really hard just to hang with just to hang with not to beat them
[01:10:42] just to hang with them so that idea gets reinforced over time okay if I don't work hard I'll be at the
[01:10:49] bottom of the barrel and and then what it boils down to if I'm at the bottom of the barrel how much
[01:10:54] am I helping with team because if I'm a if I'm a detriment to the team now now what am I
[01:11:02] even doing with my life right I do not want to be a detriment to the team I want to be a
[01:11:06] positive to the team and even though I might not be the best guy in the pollton I might not be the
[01:11:10] strongest the fastest the best shot whatever those things are if I'm third or fourth or fifth in
[01:11:16] some of those categories okay well now I'm a benefit to the team now I can help which is what
[01:11:23] it all boils down to and what it all boils down to is like you know you can make an excuse for yourself
[01:11:29] and live with it a little bit but you can't make an excuse for the team meaning hey look even in
[01:11:38] extreme case well you know if I'm not that great of a shot and the enemy gets a shot off
[01:11:42] quicker than me oh well I'm gonna die that's the that's the job of got that's the choice of you
[01:11:48] know whatever but if you just play that out one step further if I don't get this shot off
[01:11:53] this guy will have the chance to shoot one of my buddies that's you need to put more rounds down
[01:11:57] range you need to shoot more you need to get better and faster fast run your reloads fast run your
[01:12:02] draw faster in your side picture that's what you need to get better because you don't let your
[01:12:05] teammates down yeah so when that's what's really driving you that's powerful that's more powerful
[01:12:10] than I just want to be the best I don't want to just be the best because you can give yourself a little
[01:12:15] slack in there but when you look at it you say oh I don't want to let my teammates down they're
[01:12:21] counting on me that will make you stay up later that will make you wake up earlier that will drive
[01:12:28] you to try and be better and that lesson that lesson on me got reinforced over and over again
[01:12:35] and if I didn't work hard then I wouldn't be I failed something in Buds called pool competency
[01:12:43] and I should I to fail it right and I was gonna say I shouldn't have failed it and the reason
[01:12:50] I was gonna say I shouldn't have failed it was because I was comfortable in the water I
[01:12:52] done all the water stuff kind of first time every time meaning not tying in life saving I was good
[01:12:58] I felt really comfortable and so when I failed it I was sort of I was deeply disappointed
[01:13:05] that I failed it and I was hyper worried that maybe I'm not gonna make it through this training
[01:13:12] and so we mean a couple of the other guys that failed we spent the entire weekend
[01:13:17] in the dip tank which is the little box that you fill with water to clean stuff in
[01:13:24] and I don't even know why the instructor's lettuce he was dive gear I have no idea why this was not safe
[01:13:30] and maybe we just did it I don't really remember but we got in this dip tank and we
[01:13:34] did pool comp to each other for hours and we just ripped the stuff off and ripped you know
[01:13:40] crossed each other until we went through the procedure so many times when I went to retake pool
[01:13:45] comp it was it was easy it was easy when I went to retake it on Monday so what what lesson got reinforced
[01:13:52] I need to prepare more I need to work harder I need to go to the extra distance or else I can fail
[01:13:57] so there's another little reinforcement I told you this one before I failed the run in seal training
[01:14:02] why did I fail run I failed the run in seal training because I paced myself and said well you
[01:14:08] know I'll save a little something and I didn't have anything to save what I needed to do was run as hard as I could
[01:14:14] so I failed the run when I paced myself the next run what did I do when that when they said go
[01:14:20] I ran as fast as I could for the entire thing because you're not allowed to wear a watch so you have no idea
[01:14:24] what the time is you just and so you think about that you think about when you're cruising on a run versus
[01:14:30] when you're running as hard as you can it's hard to tell where that cruise level's at because
[01:14:34] am I running am I running a six minute mile if I'm cruising am I running a six thirdier
[01:14:40] or am I running a seven twenty it can be hard to judge especially when you're sore like your
[01:14:45] your body sore so you know if you did if you did 500 eight count body builders at three o'clock in the
[01:14:52] morning and then you go out and you run your run your pace you might seem like you're running faster
[01:14:57] than you really are so when I learned from that I failed the run and now what I have to do I've
[01:15:03] realized I can never let off again can ever so there's a little lesson getting reinforced
[01:15:09] over and over and over again don't leave it up to chance don't leave it up to chance do let
[01:15:13] do the work and that's the way that's how you develop these things no one told me no one told me
[01:15:20] what I just said I would maybe I wish somebody's would have and the reason I say maybe is because
[01:15:24] maybe you still don't learn it because there's some things that you have to actually go through
[01:15:29] there's some things that the only thing that's going to teach you is experience yeah and
[01:15:33] even like these you went through these things where the environment sort of provided these lessons
[01:15:40] no matter how like over or covert they were like provided to you through the environment like
[01:15:46] you know like a like a farmer or something like this someone who's sort of grew up just working
[01:15:50] hard as a way of life you put them in another environment we're working hard will show itself
[01:15:54] or whatever or they'll work hard yeah because the environment sort of provided that whatever
[01:15:59] so yeah so that makes sense you know and obviously we can't count every second of your life
[01:16:04] and years where this came from and it was it you know obviously but it seems like the work ethic
[01:16:09] and being able to like show fortitude like mentally through things or whatever it seems like
[01:16:14] that's an environmental thing fully it is and that's why redcurrence was biking five miles to work
[01:16:19] in five miles home every day monday through Saturday yeah six days a week get some up in
[01:16:24] will please upill both ways so that is what they learned in this training some of these things
[01:16:32] that we just talked about and and again the book details these things really well but we're going
[01:16:39] to jump ahead right now to a chapter five accrues to North Africa on the ship I bordered
[01:16:45] and after endless trudging along narrow passageways and up and down the steep stairs and
[01:16:50] gangways I was directed to an area below the waterline after the ship soon after casting off
[01:16:55] we learned that we were heading for Algiers from where we would take part in a combined
[01:17:00] operation by Great Britain in the United States codenamed operation torch that's legit you get on
[01:17:05] this ship to leave you don't even know where you're going you're just going to go get some
[01:17:09] you yeah that's what you know you're going to go get some
[01:17:12] moving forward here they're on the ground um and again I hate to skip these parts this is a book
[01:17:21] you got to get and I'll talk about how to get it again because it's not a normal book we were
[01:17:27] informed that our objective was an enemy emergency air strip close to a place called Suk El Arba
[01:17:34] in Tunisia along the way we were attacked by two M.E.109s but these were success we shot down by our
[01:17:42] escorts of Spitfires boom thanks to the Americans easing their rule about smoking on aircraft
[01:17:48] I managed to feel more relaxed by puffing through half a dozen cigarettes so now they're going
[01:17:52] for their jump by the way they're going to jump into this um into this emergency air strip
[01:17:59] it was a three hour journey in very hot and humid heat and we sat in the plane sweating like
[01:18:04] pigs singing songs and cracking jokes to try and hide our feelings chunky said well lofty
[01:18:09] that's his nickname he brings up a couple times well lofty won't be long now
[01:18:13] see you in heaven you must be joking mate I replied turtley he's got to be a damn good
[01:18:20] Jerry to catch up with me then the order was bellowed out action stations it made me shiver
[01:18:26] hook up I was sweating sweating like hell and fell a bit weak at the knees I wondered out loud
[01:18:35] what sort of reception are we going to get what mate crabsriast oh nothing I'm uttered
[01:18:41] I hooked up my line with shaky fingers managing to endure 10 minutes of standing
[01:18:47] while the plane came to in to drop us at the airfield out in the wild 70 miles
[01:18:52] from Tunis so the reason I put that part of there is just letting everybody know especially
[01:18:58] you young troopers out there that are going on hold the line you're going to be scared
[01:19:03] and even this guy that is just a fundamental badass across the board is shaking fingers
[01:19:09] he's sweating profusely he's scared and by the way he's hiding it to the best of his ability
[01:19:17] he's keep he's stifling that emotion continue on the jump master's piercing voice cut through
[01:19:23] the sound of the aircraft stand to the door I swallowed hard and prepared for the exit
[01:19:28] when the order to go rang in my ears I became a changed man it suddenly felt so much cooler
[01:19:33] being whisked about in the air all around me were hundreds of parachutes we were finally dropping
[01:19:38] in action there you go so you're going to be scared once you get in the action you'll settle down
[01:19:49] and okay so now this is the land they move and now they get into a situation
[01:19:58] we were machine gun costly one minute we were in put in buses and the next taking cover
[01:20:03] once with Pat Dolan and chunky I dash for safety across an open ground and slid into a hundred feet
[01:20:10] slid into a hollow 100 feet from a derode as three small specks of mishrishmets
[01:20:15] came diving straight for us from 4,000 feet I lay on my stomach looking at the aircraft through
[01:20:20] my camouflage net scarf as they came in fast much closer now and three of them open fire one
[01:20:25] concentrating on the road transport the other two honor men scrambling for cover on each side of the road
[01:20:30] bullet slash the ground ten feet from us kicking up fountains of dust bloody hell pat that was
[01:20:36] close said chunky they circled and came in for another run this time really low only about
[01:20:42] 50 feet from the ground a couple of our act-act guns let fly jerry let rip and muck seem to be
[01:20:50] flying everywhere mainly rock splinters and dust as one aircraft clattered by I saw quite
[01:20:56] plainly the pilot with a white scarf around his neck you fucking fool you might have killed us
[01:21:02] someone shouted and then let out a bellowing laugh amazingly after all that strafing no one was
[01:21:08] seriously hurt and only two of our vehicles were rendered unserviceable as time went on things
[01:21:13] continued to hot up and the buses were soon abandoned in favor of foot slogging so again this is like
[01:21:23] a horrifying thing to think about these measures met one-on-nines coming down and strafing you
[01:21:28] with machine gun this pushing forward a little bit in the book there another situation
[01:21:38] then they turn towards us three stucodive bombers approaching us at about five thousand feet the
[01:21:43] sky was clear invisibility was good it was most weird not knowing whether they were interested in
[01:21:48] us or just passing but they were interested in us all right the leading pilot made half a roll
[01:21:54] and nose down the preliminary commencing that awe-inspiring stucodive angle of 85 degrees as it
[01:22:02] wind nearer I could see the evil go-win shape so clearly it seemed to be approaching me head on
[01:22:08] and it was and I was at my wits end as to whether I should get out and run for it or stay safely
[01:22:15] put but possibly perish before I could make up my mind us off for black dots moving away from the
[01:22:20] aircraft they were bombs seemingly aimed directly at me they're discent accompanied by a high-pitch
[01:22:28] scream I gripped my smock and braised myself the sides of my slit trench took shook and a shower
[01:22:35] of freshly dug soil cascaded over my face partly filling the trench Christ that's closed I thought
[01:22:40] it allowed the other two stucos came into repeat the treatment and there seemed to be a never-ending
[01:22:45] succession of bombs violently vibrating around then the drone aircraft drifted away and as
[01:22:51] as black smoke below slowly skyward voices began to ring out as men sought to
[01:22:57] sought reassurance that others were okay chunky was there on the edge of my trench asking
[01:23:02] if I was all right putting on a brave front I said I was and I was except for a little excretion
[01:23:12] but then getting away with nothing more than a wet pants after that lot did not hurt my pride
[01:23:19] I didn't tell the others though so that freaking bombs drop right on top of them
[01:23:25] pistons pants no factor happy to be alive continue on we need only been in and this is
[01:23:36] again skipping we had only been in Tunisia for a few days in our bag of enemy killed or captured
[01:23:40] was fast increasing together with quite an assortment of armored cards motorbikes and weapons
[01:23:48] they get into some gun fights I found myself going on a volunteer burial party for men
[01:23:53] known to be lost or killed in action for any dead or wounded paras that's a parachute guys
[01:24:01] the Arabs could be the biggest menace as some of them would think nothing of stripping
[01:24:06] a corpse of its clothing and then just leaving it if a ring would not come off the finger with
[01:24:11] ease the finger might be severed to achieve their greedy end at times it was reported that wounded
[01:24:17] both sides were mutilated by these scum and here he's out on these um basically like on a
[01:24:27] little burial party after some of these battles had taken place we came upon two more paras
[01:24:34] one lying by a large rock a jagged cut with dried blood right across his temple
[01:24:40] the other just a few yards away looking a bloated blue green
[01:24:45] I had seen dead soldiers before usually just after being killed but this retrieving of
[01:24:51] private papers of private papers and dog tags from dead men was not in my book of training
[01:24:57] and I was lost for a moment wondering if I was alone in this nightmare
[01:25:02] and then there's a there's a podray with a minister with him and he says the podray broke
[01:25:08] the silence by inquiring in a most serene voice now who have we here we buried those two side by
[01:25:18] side and then he goes forward here things were beginning to hot up now and we found ourselves
[01:25:27] taking part in some large scale skirmishes with an enemy who is not going to take it all lying down
[01:25:32] now he says hot up he doesn't say heat up and he says that throughout the books that's why
[01:25:38] I prayed for a little extra expression on it so people don't think that I was misreading it
[01:25:44] but he says things were beginning to hot up now maybe we'll bring that back
[01:25:51] and here we go fast forward a little bit I was just taking a position with the mortar
[01:25:55] when the CEO went around firing his pistol on the open side slots of the tanks and calling
[01:26:00] for the crews to come out so here's the CEO and there's some tanks some enemy tanks and this
[01:26:04] guy's approaching him with the pistol on reaching the third tank shots were fired back and he fell
[01:26:10] clutching his chest followed by his agitin captain Miles Whitelock who is hitting the face
[01:26:17] amid the general den of battle I was too busy to get trying to get dug into the rocky soil to
[01:26:23] make out exactly what had happened but soon learned that the CEO had been severely wounded and
[01:26:28] major Pearson was now to take over command it was a great blow to me at this time also to hear
[01:26:35] the death of my old friend Stanley Wandless I was horrified by a different site and a
[01:26:44] enormous brute of a pig munching away at a dead German soldier it seemed the pig had somehow
[01:26:51] come across the wine in this farm got filthy drunk and was eating everything
[01:26:56] such scenes became horribly familiar but my stomach gradually grew accustomed to them
[01:27:05] on Christmas day 1942 I watched the rain fall as I tried to make myself a little more comfortable
[01:27:09] in my slit trench rain trickled down my neck my hands were wet and cold and if I had had a
[01:27:15] cigarette I would have enjoyed it my feet had been constantly wet for god knows how long and I was
[01:27:19] beginning to feel a teeny bit browned off when good news we were being withdrawn for arrest off we went
[01:27:28] to sucel comis where I thoroughly enjoyed the luxury of a mobile bathroom it de-lousing and refitting
[01:27:37] it was heaven but we soon returned to the grind once more so again I picked out some highlights of
[01:27:44] the first kind of action that they had but you have to get the book to kind of follow along exactly
[01:27:50] what they'd been through but they'd been through really tough fighting and then finally they get the
[01:27:56] they get the turn they get the word that they're going to take a little break which they do but
[01:28:01] you know like I said earlier it's it's a little break it's not big and just like I talked about
[01:28:07] the times where you get a little reprieve from the cold wet miserable but then you'd
[01:28:13] it's time to go back in and that's what you have to do and these guys do that.
[01:28:19] going on here between the two they're then up in this spot between the two towns is a hill called
[01:28:25] Jebel Montmansoir the commanding height to the pont du tunis road it's 2000 feet above sea level
[01:28:35] five miles around at the base and has an easiest climbing angle of 45 degrees also known by
[01:28:41] us as hill 648 it was occupied by crack German Africa core and alpine troops and it was our
[01:28:48] job to take it at all costs. I thought this word would be a tough nut to crack but the
[01:28:57] men were determined to win through this through but the men were determined to win through
[01:29:04] and shift the enemy once and for all we checked our arms and ammunition and collected 48 hours
[01:29:11] of rations. So there's this dominant high ground that they need to take and it's got their
[01:29:17] Africa core who I talked about earlier it's got the alpine troops these are these are really good
[01:29:23] German troops and this point early in the war you know this is when this is when the German
[01:29:27] military was really really good I mean later in the war they were still good but they you know
[01:29:36] they suffered massive casualties and they started having like little you know younger troops
[01:29:41] inexperienced troop Hitler youth you know kids that were 14 years old out on the front lines
[01:29:44] getting after it this is early in the war these are experienced troops you know these are the troops
[01:29:50] that were this is where you know the the Prussian roots of military genius are showing through
[01:29:58] and these troops and this is it this is these are tough tough this is a tough enemy so going on here
[01:30:08] we started off and it was quite a long way over rough and uneven ground before we halted at
[01:30:13] the base of an ugly massive looking hill the usual advanced bombardment that preceded most
[01:30:18] attacks was not forthcoming on this occasion as we wanted to maintain the element of surprise
[01:30:22] this time Jerry would be first to rock the boat as we waited at the base of the hill the sky now
[01:30:29] and again became bright with German nightlights which when fired heavenward made the whole area
[01:30:35] quite luminous everyone froze until they fell to earth and safety returned once more in the form of
[01:30:41] semi-darkness in this waiting game I found my thoughts strange back to England what I could do for a
[01:30:49] couple of finds pints of English beer there's not until four o'clock in the next morning we ventured
[01:30:55] carefully toward forward through the undergrowth up went to more German nightlights then two more
[01:31:02] then still more the places illuminated like daylight they must have got wind of us or smelt us
[01:31:07] we could determine the nationality of a soldier from at fifty feet if the wind was favorable
[01:31:12] so probably they could do the same from the top of the hill two machine guns began firing
[01:31:17] then more joined in as the place were alive with them and they slashed and ripped mercilessly
[01:31:22] at the brack and slicing the branches of trees as if an invisible sharp knife had done the job
[01:31:27] I'll pull it went through my trouser leg gazing my thigh but I didn't think too much of it as I was
[01:31:32] still mobile German mortar started hitting the approach slope and yells a pain here and there told
[01:31:38] me to take more care the wine overhead was also warning that the enemy artillery was joining in
[01:31:45] as things hot it up with the occasional tracer bullet mixed in with the machine gun fire I could
[01:31:50] almost feel the hot led piercing my limbs it was certain I would not get away with this time
[01:31:55] farther back things had gone wrong with our usual stalwart mules the amazing animals that
[01:31:59] carried our heavy gear where men could not set foot they didn't appreciate the sudden shelling
[01:32:04] and bolted out of control major clums be Thompson managed around some of them up with the
[01:32:11] help of a French officer major pre-alue and then all housing to be let loose our man our men yelling
[01:32:20] woo hoo Muhammad as the R&T companies went in with their bayonets unfortunately asked company
[01:32:27] miss their correct route the tapes laid to assist their assent had been damaged or cut by the enemy
[01:32:33] activity and at the count we were to find that they had suffered extremely heavy casualties and
[01:32:40] this can't of woo hoo Muhammad this is throughout the time that they're fighting in Africa and they do it
[01:32:46] when they get to Europe as well it's just the we something that the locals did and they started doing it
[01:32:50] too it's kind of like the term gung ho which gung ho the the Chinese turn which means work it's
[01:32:59] actually a Chinese communist term which means work together and you know we use it and they started
[01:33:06] using it I believe isn't a Korean war they started using that term but I had been in World War
[01:33:12] II working with the Chinese anyway I the I must have been when it was must have been
[01:33:16] we're doing World War II when they were working with the Chinese and the Chinese would say gung ho
[01:33:21] work together kind of means get fired up down well now yeah that's how we use it Americans
[01:33:28] we can take work together and turn it into get after it the barrage we were set up against was intense
[01:33:37] and a ricocheting bullet or shell splinter often did as much damage or more that is straightforward
[01:33:41] burst of fire we could occasionally be lucky at one time an artillery shell failed to explode on
[01:33:47] impact with the ground and went on mercilessly ricocheting three times before coming to a rest with a doll
[01:33:53] plop but the bombardment was unrelenting and we had to work and we had our work cut out here
[01:34:01] there was agonizing shrieks of pain right and left to me as I passed unrecognizable
[01:34:06] as I passed men unrecognizable soaked in blood being tended to a barrage splendid medics
[01:34:12] those unsung unarmed heroes Sam cost her and Frankie Thompson reached the summit and searched
[01:34:17] out and dealt with the enemy with no ceremony whatsoever as Sam told me afterward Frankie was
[01:34:25] lunging and tossing men with his bayonet as though he as though they were sacks of straw
[01:34:30] Frankie was a big chap usually very friendly and quietly spoken but an action
[01:34:35] a different man picture that bayonet on your rifle and your throwing men off of it lunging
[01:34:46] and throwing men with the bayonet as if they were sacks of straw Frankie Thompson done play
[01:34:54] amid the turn all the turmoil and dead and wounded of both sides the curtain of fire had lifted
[01:34:59] and it was not a sound this is once they get up to the hilltop looking around the hilltop
[01:35:08] only a few of our men could be seen moving among the twisted forms our R T and S companies
[01:35:15] had suffered very heavy casualties more than half of the battalion officers had been killed or wounded
[01:35:22] he as they kind of get settled on the top of the hill he as they're preparing for a counter
[01:35:32] attack which they know the Germans are going to do he gets sort of tasked with going around and helping
[01:35:38] and gather up the sick dead or the wounded in the dead he goes on here setting about the job of
[01:35:43] collecting the wounded was something sickening as I gazed upon the scene of our once able and
[01:35:50] live comrades now quite still or with torn limbs I wondered whether there was any such thing as civilization
[01:35:59] I bet hard on my lip and went about my task with grim determination
[01:36:05] looking around for someone to help I noticed a lad who is in the same troop as me early in
[01:36:11] 1941 hello taffy and one of you been up to like a lift that's how he greets this guy cheers lofty
[01:36:20] and like I said lofty is the nickname of red cheers lofty is nice to see someone alive he said
[01:36:26] weirdly he was in a sitting position and apparently been hit by no fewer than five bullets
[01:36:32] they were all clean flesh wounds in the calf five four arm and one through the apex of his
[01:36:38] penis and all rather uncomfortable but no broken bones he was pretty well saturated with blood
[01:36:47] but cheerful let's try a fireman's carry I suggested he'd had a shot of morphine so I didn't think
[01:36:55] he'd feel he would feel too much anything to get away from here he said at that point Jerry started
[01:37:01] up again with artillery and mortars then a few snipers and to make it really interesting
[01:37:06] some sookah dive bombers stuccus dive bombers to join in the chorus let's get going before it gets
[01:37:14] too hot I've got to get you on my back I said so once again this is you know he's saying this
[01:37:22] so kind of matter of faculty he's up there trying to rescue this wounded guy who's obviously
[01:37:27] badly wounded he's been shot five times and then they start with artillery and mortars
[01:37:34] and then snipers and then stuccadive bombers that's what's going on and then he says he says
[01:37:40] let's get going before it gets too hot it's like it doesn't get any hotter
[01:37:46] I've got to get you on my back I said I managed to get him over my shoulder without causing too much pain
[01:37:51] and we started along the long trek through wounded country ravines and open waste it was a
[01:37:56] ticklish and tender drop job but for two hours we struggled on I was sweating like two pigs and he
[01:38:02] goes through a description of how hard it was to get this guy to an area where he could get some
[01:38:08] of the help that he needed once he gets that guy dropped off continuing on I joined a section
[01:38:14] comprising men from T and S companies they were mostly newcomers I wondered what to become of all
[01:38:21] the friends I had not seen since the attack started one of the lads told me that major canron
[01:38:26] had been killed and captain meller too I felt so alone no disrespect to the reinforcements
[01:38:33] but the cream of our men were fast disappearing in the foothills of Tunisia
[01:38:38] Jerry was counter attacking in earnest now and slinging everything at us in the way of explosives
[01:38:45] with batches of stuccadive bombers joining in at two hour intervals and making things even more
[01:38:51] deafening the muck was falling heavily and a splinter from a nearby bursting bomb
[01:38:58] slashed of vain in my right hand while another praying to my helmet
[01:39:05] nipping over rocks and creeping through bracken and bush under a hail of bullets and screaming
[01:39:11] shells I had become I became cut off from the party of men I'd been attached to I was making
[01:39:16] good progress and stopping for a breather dropped into a small depression in the ground.
[01:39:22] Suddenly alone German pounced on me from the rear I realized what was happening instantly
[01:39:27] when I saw the field gray cut of his uniform my schmizer which was out of ammunition was
[01:39:34] slung band-lear fashion over my shoulder but I had an american 45 automatic cult ready in my right hand
[01:39:40] I went down on one knee summoned up the unarmed combat I had been taught
[01:39:45] grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and heaved him with all my force over my head it was my turn now
[01:39:50] and I was not so gentle as he rolled onto his back I sprang and landed my 14 stone weight
[01:39:56] feet first on his chest grabbing the cult which I had released to dangle on its landyard I
[01:40:01] started to squeeze the trigger shouting you butcher bastard to his no no comrade no no no
[01:40:08] I pulled the trigger but it was empty I grabbed his rifle check that it was loaded and ordered him
[01:40:17] to his feet donka donka he kept saying hugging his chest as we moved off and with that he
[01:40:24] starts moving to get this prisoner back under control arriving back at Borada after the
[01:40:31] formality of delivering my prisoner to custody I rejoin the rest of the battalion we were in
[01:40:36] great need of rest and a refit and we were and we're all sent by truck to a place called
[01:40:43] tabursuk some 60 miles away wall Borada was handed over with thanks to the Americans
[01:40:54] we were very soon back with the great so they get a little breather we were very soon back with a
[01:40:59] brigade this time in the Jebel aboid area the brigade's manpower was well down with the enemy
[01:41:06] and the enemy usually outnumbered us three to one death ridge as my pet one parah
[01:41:13] as my first parah position in happy valley was known also developed the name shell shock ridge
[01:41:19] I tried closing my eyes at any given explosion it was a terrible feeling like waiting to be
[01:41:26] massacred the German started to mount an attack it was daylight and I could see motorized
[01:41:33] enemy units being dropped off at points as near as they dared to our positions three or four
[01:41:39] miles off in the direction of sedegene they spread out and extended order and started tortoise
[01:41:47] we were told to hold our fire until the last minute so the whole first battalion lay very quiet
[01:41:52] and still and we mortars saturated the area I felt the draft of an exploding shell which
[01:41:57] defamed my left ear and left it ringing and at the same time propelled me to the bottom of my trench
[01:42:03] making me even wetter than I already was now the mortar braided lift and I'm skipping ahead a
[01:42:10] little bit now the mortar brazed lifted and I could hear the silence of the solider machine gun fire
[01:42:16] as it severed the undergrowth the enemy getting near all the time 60 yards 50 yards 40 yards
[01:42:24] I peaked gingerly over the edge of my hole in the ground 30 yards 20 yards then above the din
[01:42:30] the order was bellowed fire fire fire advance advance as we went out to meet them the
[01:42:38] battalion flung everything the enemy that it flung everything at the enemy that it could
[01:42:43] Tommy guns brand guns stand guns capped captured solathorns and smithers grenades English
[01:42:50] German Natayan coupled with the cry of woo hoo Muhammad gripping my rifle I advanced through
[01:42:56] the murderous fire the haze of smoke and the accurate smell of explosives every available man was
[01:43:02] on this one even the cooks before long the tables had turned in our favor with two dead
[01:43:07] paras lying to my left I hopped over a dead German and came upon a wounded one a little to my
[01:43:12] right he was contemplating using a luger pistol but I booted it from his hand and clomped him
[01:43:17] in the face with the butt of my rifle the whole episode was soon over with the enemy beating a
[01:43:23] hasty retreat and leaving a bag of captured clean shaven German parasheus flown in direct from
[01:43:29] Germany to deal with us one a shock for them so that's like just again whatever a couple
[01:43:38] paragraphs maybe two paragraphs and I mean it's total insanity right the guys are 20 yards away
[01:43:46] before they get the the order not only to fire but to advance continuing on this is now they're
[01:43:59] doing a coordinated attack while we pushed on with two paras and three paras brought up the rear
[01:44:06] the British 139th brigade attacked on our right in time the pimple on this name of like a little
[01:44:12] null was retaken and our brigade proceeded to press home the final assault amidst devastating artillery
[01:44:19] and mortar fire from both sides tragically we found that we had gone a little too fast for our
[01:44:28] 25 pounders to increase their range quickly enough and we suffered heavy casualties from our own fire
[01:44:36] at daylight I passed a jock Pearson crouched by a rock bellowing into a field radio and none
[01:44:44] too pleased with the person on the other end what do you think you're doing he wrote you're killing
[01:44:50] all my bloody men so little horrible blue on blue scenario happening man everything but everything
[01:45:06] seemed to be in our favor now even the weather was kinder and we must have advanced about eight
[01:45:11] miles under a curtain of continuous fire both until both Italians and Germany were ready to
[01:45:17] give in and we're running to be captured so think about this scene with just massive fire and you're
[01:45:27] advancing under that fire for eight miles they get um they're they're doing this they're continuing
[01:45:42] to advance in this part and here measure schmets buzz the area spraying the ground spasmotically
[01:45:46] and causing those nearest to drop quickly into convenient holes we pushed on at a steady pace
[01:45:51] passed demolition guns past demolished guns and supplied dumps the air stinking with a pollen butchery
[01:45:59] I glanced and stinctively towards a shell burst fifty yards away as I watched its jet black smoke
[01:46:06] belt skyward my gaze was transfixed by something odd on the ground I wanted if it could be a human
[01:46:12] drawing nearer I saw that it was the roasted body of a man in the sitting position he must have
[01:46:19] been driving a scout car or light vehicle as there were small pieces of charred twisted metal
[01:46:24] spread fifty feet around with dismembered arms and legs torn and blood soaked uniforms
[01:46:32] littering the black scorched soil the aroma was diabolical someone accidentally brushed the
[01:46:40] sitting form on passing and the body simply disintegrated with a sickly sound fast forwarding a bit
[01:46:52] the smell of burnt flesh coated in my direction and I quickly and I quick into my pace to get
[01:46:59] clear of it plotting on in these awful humid and dusty conditions I think I felt almost immune
[01:47:05] to wearing this and the shocking sights of war nothing seemed to be able to stop us now
[01:47:17] and this is again you got to read this book but this site sort of concludes this section the first
[01:47:22] parachute brigade group was not destined to take part in the final push to tuna's our role
[01:47:29] in the campaign had come to an end and we were withdrawn from the line so ending five months hard
[01:47:37] slog and again that we were just burning through this book and I'm skipping so many sections
[01:47:43] this stuff is this is five months this is half a year just about of this type of fighting
[01:47:51] originally trained as shock troops in Tunisia after the initial parachute assaults
[01:47:58] we had served as plain infantry but that's just the way the wind blew for us
[01:48:04] metals were plentiful and all ranks had earned them eight distinguished service orders
[01:48:10] 15 military crosses nine distinguished conduct metals 22 military metals
[01:48:17] three raw digger and one legion to honor in their own way even our German adversaries had
[01:48:29] recognized the brigades fighting ability by naming us the red devils for those who are there
[01:48:37] though the price of success was unspeakably high we had lost more than 1700 men killed wounded
[01:48:49] or missing so again I hate to burn through five months of insane fighting
[01:48:59] and I'll take a dig at red right now like he's so matter of fact about stuff and he only
[01:49:10] hits on the high points I'm hitting on the high points of the high points right just insane
[01:49:16] insane to think about that for five months so from there they're transported from Tunisia
[01:49:24] back to Algeria and they spend time training for a drop into Sicily a parachute drop
[01:49:32] in Sicily which once again you're fighting in Africa look it's really tough conditions in
[01:49:37] Africa now you're getting closer to Germany like you're going into going into Sicily you know
[01:49:42] what's waiting for you it was hoped that if Sicily could be taken it might prompt an Italian
[01:49:50] surrender a large proportion of my battalion including myself now went down with this entry
[01:49:57] goes in and talking about a lot of that this is no this is just it's like no nothing's easy
[01:50:04] between exercises we acclimat acclimatized our reinforcements to use every
[01:50:10] they're used every type of enemy weapons including Schmeizer automatic which we found superior to our own
[01:50:15] standgun so now they start preparing for this mission in Sicily there were three bridges to take
[01:50:25] in Sicily and the password for them was to be desert rats with the reply kill Italians
[01:50:37] as the plane took off chunky said well this is it our second operation
[01:50:41] I tried to act normally but could feel the sweat running down my cheek so once again he's
[01:50:48] stifling some emotions in here they go getting on this getting ready to do this drop
[01:50:58] and this is just it's just crazy as we drew nearer to our objective and at a thousand feet
[01:51:05] I could see the flack and tracer zipping past the wing of the aircraft for 30 minutes we
[01:51:12] dodged everything they threw at us but it was a tens half hour as we were helpless to do anything
[01:51:18] so you're in an airplane you're getting ready to parachute and there's flack bombs exploding around
[01:51:24] you trying to take down your aircraft and tracer fires zipping but you know how much protection
[01:51:29] an aircraft gives you from tracer fire from machine gunfire zero what's flack so it's anti-aircraft
[01:51:39] they set it for a certain altitude it goes up in the air and then just blows up in hopes that
[01:51:43] some of that shrapnel will hit the aircraft and damage the aircraft and take them down
[01:51:47] so flack jacket is to roll it so flack actually flack is just little chunks of its fragmentation
[01:51:57] right all chunks of metal that that come off of explosive device that could grenade or a artillery
[01:52:05] round that's going to blow up like on purpose yes that's what it for and then a flack jacket
[01:52:10] is to protect you from flack good yeah and in the old days like the flack the term
[01:52:16] flack jacket the flack jacket would protect you from flack it wouldn't protect you from a bullet
[01:52:20] because flack isn't going as fast as a bullet is so like an old school Vietnam flack jacket
[01:52:27] wouldn't stop bullets but it would protect you from flack yeah like motorcycle jacket kind of thing
[01:52:32] like it's like it'll it'll protect you but not from the real deal yeah yeah yeah so even
[01:52:38] so even nowadays right the expression like don't give me any flack it's like kind of that yeah yeah
[01:52:43] exactly yeah exactly what it is so these guys are up there and like he says helpless
[01:52:50] and by the way this is a half an hour of this
[01:52:55] suddenly we were given continuing suddenly we were given the order to hook up I did so
[01:53:00] and waited the engines cut back on the approach to our drops on we descended to around 600 feet
[01:53:05] with all sorts of rubbish whizzing by and the plane pitching and tossing like a toy in a vast
[01:53:09] vacuum then there came a terrific explosion as our tail was hit the order jump man jumped
[01:53:18] screamed in my ears and I tumble through the doorway into the void below so they are craft finally
[01:53:25] takes a devastating hit he doesn't he doesn't mention whether the aircraft made it or not he just
[01:53:30] says that it you know the tail was hit hard I can't imagine that's super easy to fly a plane
[01:53:35] what's the tail's been blown off now he gets on the ground again fast forward a little bit
[01:53:42] on the ground about 300 yards in my left was the main coastal road to the town of
[01:53:49] Katania and enemy traffic wasn't tremendous confusion to my rear I could hear Italian voices
[01:53:57] and about a hundred yards to my right Germans wrapping out orders then now the road came a 15
[01:54:03] strong German patrol they could have been parachutists judging by their dress and head gear
[01:54:09] fortunately I was not alone when they were just a few yards off and we opened up on them
[01:54:15] there were some grunts, groans and sickly yelps then silence we slipped on in the direction of the
[01:54:21] bridge around which our men were by now silently killing harassing and panicking the German
[01:54:27] Italian defenders at night small battles raged unceasingly and we were pinned down for a long
[01:54:35] time by mortar fire when daylight broke though I saw the for the first time the vast mountain scenery
[01:54:40] at the base of which we had been fighting again I'm just jumping through stuff then the sun starts
[01:54:46] to come up it became warm and then the heat became intense a typical you're never you can never just
[01:54:54] be comfortable it's always like freezing cold or too hot you would you he had 15 minutes where
[01:54:59] it was warm and then they were too hot there had been no firing for some time and I realized that
[01:55:04] the enemy was no longer with us scanning the countryside I could see burnt out cars Italian tanks
[01:55:09] and ammunition dumps the smell of burnt bodies and oil filled the air I was glad to move on
[01:55:15] such a confusion of our brigade such was the confusion of our brigade drop that come daylight
[01:55:22] three men from the men from three parah discovered they spent all night fighting alongside the
[01:55:27] men of first pair without realizing it at the bridge it was clear that there had been a fierce battle
[01:55:34] the pill boxes had been rushed and dealt with ruthlessly here the brigade mustard approximately
[01:55:41] 180 men but the three inch mortars in ammunition had not arrived and there was a lack of communication
[01:55:46] without side units wireless sets those are radios had been either incorrectly netted back in
[01:55:52] Africa were damaged on the landing or just did not arrive we learned that German parachutists
[01:55:58] from the third regiment of the first fallshemierger division had dropped simultaneously on our
[01:56:05] drops on the previous night so we must have indeed have brushed shoulders with them when we
[01:56:12] came upon that 50 man patrol how crazy is that you're jumping into a drop zone and the
[01:56:18] Germans are jumping in there too and then he grows as things start to escalate he's talking
[01:56:28] around how hot it was like hot as in not heat temperature but hot as in enemy action little
[01:56:36] wonder things were so warm the area within an approximately two mile radius of the bridge was
[01:56:41] festoon with 88 millimeter and 20 millimeter guns pill boxes machine gun pits and also a few
[01:56:47] coastal guns and we were engaging with crack German troop including pair troops they presented a good
[01:56:53] target whenever they got too near the bridge you could not miss but word run around that our supply
[01:56:58] of ammunition was now drastically low conserve ammunition in fire only when you are absolutely certain
[01:57:05] of a kill was the order but do in due course members of the first and third pair of battalions
[01:57:12] at the northern end of the bridge with Drew to join us at the southern end the enemy was getting
[01:57:18] harder to ward off as tanks and tanks began to appear now we got tanks enemy tanks on the scene
[01:57:28] we were using captured Italian 40 millimeter anti tank gun along with our own anti tank gun
[01:57:34] the battle worked up to a terrific climax the Germans were sending their best troops in an effort to
[01:57:38] shift us their pair of troopers probing for weak spots and allowing no respite food was in our
[01:57:44] haversax but there was no time to get it it was fire fire and keep on firing finally there was a
[01:57:50] wall at about 1830 or soon after giving us a chance to take stock maybe the Germans wanted to
[01:57:56] regroup I checked my ammunition and found only four rounds left plus one in the chamber
[01:58:01] at 1930 we were ordered to withdraw in order to avoid capture and go in small groups we made it off
[01:58:09] in a westernly direction toward the gona loung the gona lunga river if we could use the river
[01:58:18] and the road running parallel to it as a guide for a couple miles perhaps then we could be
[01:58:22] clear of any enemy concentrated attack so these guys are basically bagging out of the area
[01:58:28] and as they're doing their doing in small groups at one point as darkness fell we came upon a
[01:58:36] deserted farmhouse but decided not to enter as it was quite near an abandoned flat gun pit
[01:58:40] we thought both sides would be we thought both could be booby trapped it was approximately
[01:58:45] zero 200 by now we were very tired in hungry we dosed off in an orchard 20 feet from the edge
[01:58:51] each man at the base of a different tree so as to be less conspicuous so they spend the night in this
[01:58:57] orchard and then they set off once again we saw no more of the enemy via lentini
[01:59:08] we reached Augusta some 50 miles from Primisol Bridge finding the town in our hands it was a great
[01:59:15] site to see so many of our own troops and tanks and so they continue on reaching Syracuse without
[01:59:23] miss hop on this on the 17th of July just four days after dropping in Sicily we soon set sail
[01:59:30] arriving back at Sous in Tunisia on the 20th our first parachute brigade group had not only suffered
[01:59:38] heavily in the North African campaign but in Sicily too where we had lost a further 300 men killed
[01:59:45] wounded or missing it was time to rest refit regroup and reorganized and we also
[01:59:53] got to relax so I mean this this is a group of men that are now just hardened combat
[02:00:04] that's and yet there's no war there's no end to this in sight right I mean there's no end
[02:00:16] hey I guess if you looked at it from a strategic perspective knowing what we know today maybe you
[02:00:20] could say there's an end in sight but if you know you're barely surviving this you're barely
[02:00:26] surviving it you know what the end is I mean you have to accept what the end is probably in a
[02:00:31] big the end is probably gonna be you're not gonna live in early November we were told that the whole
[02:00:40] first airborne division was returning to England and the first parachute brigade would leave
[02:00:43] from Algiers at the end of the month on the 29th of September we shipped out of Algiers
[02:00:50] on the SS Samaria happily heading for Liverpool now one particular chap made a popular appearance
[02:01:00] Peter the battalions unofficial lovable dog Peter liked water and jumping from planes and was the
[02:01:10] only parachute dog on record at first he was owned by a lad named topor brown and rumor had it
[02:01:18] they had both escaped from Dunkirk in 1940 Peter was a marvel and could do almost anything
[02:01:24] asked of him never forgetting a trick put a stone on his nose and back away and he'd remain motionless
[02:01:31] but at a given command he would toss and catch that stone water was his god there had been static
[02:01:39] tanks eight feet deep at bullford into which a stone could be thrown Peter would retrieve it no time
[02:01:45] and then sit patiently waiting for another run when we had set off from North Africa in October
[02:01:52] the previous year he had been smuggled aboard the a run the castle everyone helping in the
[02:01:58] scheming to get him aboard and keep him fed exercised and comfortable he had been left behind in Algieria
[02:02:06] in the good care of the cooks and the rear echelon party when we went on to meet the enemy in
[02:02:10] Tunisia where topor brown was taken prisoner and sadly never heard of again
[02:02:18] corporal Jim Nash the battalion hairdresser of our company then took care of Peter
[02:02:25] and is it was at mate more in Algieria during training for the Sicily operation that Jim took him
[02:02:31] up for his first jump from an aircraft a special bag had been made who was fixed to Jim's front
[02:02:36] with a hole at the top for Peter's head to protrude they made a perfect landing Peter running off as
[02:02:44] happy as Larry wagging his tail after various other escapades Peter returned to Algieria's and was
[02:02:51] smuggled aboard the Samaria where he was having a great time until the locker door of his hiding
[02:02:58] place was accidentally left unsecured during one of our boat drill procedures and he ventured out on
[02:03:04] his own he was found wandering below by the ship's officer who ordered him to be put over the side
[02:03:13] we were just two days out from Liverpool the men were furious and it was just as well that the
[02:03:20] officer responsible could not be found as a roving band of justice seeking Paris could not have been
[02:03:25] expected to be lenient as far as Peter was concerned he had such enthusiasm for water that maybe
[02:03:34] he was fitting to end up in a sea grave but we felt as loss I don't mind admitting that we fighting
[02:03:41] men had a soft side even after all we'd seen and done perhaps especially after all we'd seen
[02:03:50] and done I wrote Peter a poem entitled Epitaph to a friend it's last verse as follows Peter made us
[02:04:03] happy and carefree he had no military apparel he made just two jumps his grave is the sea
[02:04:12] his wings truly earned and the name red devil kind of a theme that we see come up from time to time
[02:04:28] the attachment that soldiers can get to these to these dogs that they they come across at some point
[02:04:35] and unfortunately recurring theme is some rear echelon person doesn't understand killing those animals
[02:04:51] and I also thought it was you know it's interesting that line I don't mind admitting that
[02:04:55] we fighting men had a soft side even after all we'd seen and done and they says perhaps especially
[02:05:01] after all we'd seen and done that's something that is I mean I think that's absolutely true you know you
[02:05:10] there's no better there's the sunset looks a million times that infinitely better when you know
[02:05:16] the sacrifices that have been made to see the sunset the white bedsheets that you get to sleep on
[02:05:22] you appreciate infinitely more when you've been sleeping in the dirt for six months and it goes on and on and on
[02:05:29] then so when you see when you see the depravity that that human beings are capable of
[02:05:38] well that can actually expose the fact that you really can cherish all innocent
[02:05:46] let us in a little dog
[02:05:47] and these guys arrived back home get stationed the first battalion get stationed at
[02:06:06] Grim's Thorpe Castle and at this point they know something really big is in the air
[02:06:12] and he says here in August men coming from our old training area of Tatten Park
[02:06:20] reported seeing thousands of tanks there like a giant tank park sure enough in mid-September
[02:06:25] we were finally setting off somewhere I checked over my gear one gammon bomb two dot three six
[02:06:33] hand grenades combined pick and shovel webbing equipment with small pack two ammunition pouches
[02:06:39] and bandlear with three oh three ammunition water bottle mess tin iron ration field dressing
[02:06:45] camouflage net scarf triangle shape air recognition bright yellow silk scarf tied around the neck
[02:06:51] for ready for instant use rifle and an escape kit comprising of a silk map of Europe a small
[02:06:58] button compass and a strong file the size of a nail file that was about it except for a
[02:07:04] kit bag strap to the leg and parachute plus may-west life jacket in case we finished up in the
[02:07:09] drink I felt like an overdue pregnant hippo and didn't know where to put anything else
[02:07:15] though still I added 200 cigarettes two bars of chocolate and some boiled sweets
[02:07:22] it's interesting the yellow scarf for recognition and he specifically says tied around the neck for
[02:07:33] instant use and it's interesting we we kind of I always carried one the basic reason why I
[02:07:38] was carried one because I was a radio man when I was a young and listed guy and I used it at times
[02:07:45] I had learned the value of it signaling helicopters and signaling boats in the jungle like if you
[02:07:54] and the weird thing is you when you're in a boat let's say you're in a river along the jungle
[02:08:00] there's so much jungle to look at that it's really hard to see someone waving their hand like
[02:08:05] it seems so obvious when you're waving at some waving at a boat hey hey I'm over here the
[02:08:10] first of all they can't hear you because they're running engines shoot machine guns they can't hear you
[02:08:14] and second because they're looking at whatever quarter mile or half a mile of green
[02:08:21] bush they got this whole thing to try and find you and you're in a green camouflage uniform
[02:08:26] and you're waving your they can't see you so you need I would always have a aircraft panels what we
[02:08:32] call them aircraft sing with panel which is just bright fluorescent orange and I could whip that
[02:08:36] thing out really quickly and then it then you become a lot more visible same thing with the aircraft
[02:08:41] overhead well in a body it didn't take long before everyone was carrying that because and they were
[02:08:47] carrying big ones too like a platoon or like an element that was going in a building would have a
[02:08:51] big giant one that you could hang out a window everyone we are here hey friendly forces we are here
[02:08:58] so even this guy World War II that bright yellow silk scarf in important signaling device at the hand
[02:09:10] he says I I wondered how the rest of the men were going to fare on this hop
[02:09:13] I was just getting used to the new faces like Frankie Panzer Manzer Bill Silberry Terry Brace Dick
[02:09:23] Bingley Dolly Gray major parent brown Sid Oxley Guv Beach with his top hat the Germans
[02:09:35] will surrender in surprise if he takes him with that I thought Joe McReedy patty McCormick
[02:09:42] and Captain Joe Gardner that mean just I just had to read those names for two reasons number one
[02:09:51] because they sound like the best bunch of characters you could ever hang around and also so everyone
[02:09:56] remembers that all these people that we're talking about they're all people
[02:10:01] unfortunately sergeant Busty Everett had fallen ill and died at Born
[02:10:13] we were from all over the country and beyond and on the whole one big happy family
[02:10:19] it was daylight when we clambered into trucks and headed toward the arrow drone at Barxton Hall
[02:10:24] everyone was tense but ready to go come what may he goes on here our objective was to capture
[02:10:37] and hold the bridge straddling the rine at our nm my first parachute patty and was to seize the
[02:10:45] high ground to the north our escorting typhoon spit fire and Mustang fighters were weaving
[02:10:50] between the decodes and gliders as we cross the English channel tension began to mount in my
[02:10:55] plane we approach land on the other side and could see the area that had been flooded to try and
[02:11:00] stop her and peed the advance of our land forces i was admiring the landscape when the order
[02:11:05] rang out action stations hook up green light on go being number 13 night a few long seconds to
[02:11:13] wait as I shuffled forward then i felt a slight pat on my parachute back and again found myself
[02:11:18] tumbling out of the doorway into that familiar open void my parachute opened once more obediently
[02:11:24] and i drifted down to earth without difficulty after a good three point landing i was now an
[02:11:28] enemy occupied territory except for the occasional machine gun fire and some blasting from enemy
[02:11:34] machine gun placements the landing had been unopposed and the whole dropping north zone north of
[02:11:39] he'slam was packed with gliders and discarded parachutes everyone soon collected themselves
[02:11:45] and rendezvous to their perspective points the time was just after 1500 on Sunday the 17th of
[02:11:53] September 1944 the time was just after 1500 on Sunday the 17th of September 1944
[02:12:04] leaving the drops on we made a way quickly along the track running alongside the wood
[02:12:09] west of wolfhees and south of the railway the end of the track lined up with a road running parallel
[02:12:16] to the railway turning right here and then over the road onto the railway sidewalk we noticed our
[02:12:21] way toward wolfhees station suddenly there was a loud explosion up ahead and some machine gun fire
[02:12:31] and now this is when things start to get hot our company still upfront became engaged in a fierce
[02:12:41] battle facing armored cars, mortars and machine guns it was getting dark now the whole
[02:12:46] battalion laid doggo for a while to try to avoid further detection we lay up in the woods for
[02:12:53] some hours pushing on occasionally buck cautiously at one point in time unbeknown to the enemy they
[02:13:00] completely surrounded us in the semi dirt so here they are they're kind of like laid up they're not
[02:13:07] trying to move too much in the semi dark we passed down winding lanes this is when they start
[02:13:12] pushing forward through the woods and along the south side of the road we were now about five miles
[02:13:19] from the arndam bridge and so far luck had been with us at about two o'clock in the morning there
[02:13:26] were sounds a battle ahead apparently coming from an area north east north northeast of Lichtenbeek
[02:13:34] on arriving there at about 0-500 we found that the leading companies had met fierce opposition
[02:13:39] and it suffered heavily then with no reason given at the time the original plan to go for the
[02:13:46] high ground north of arndam was changed and we instead turned south towards marion doll
[02:13:54] an asterbeek some two miles from the bridge at 0-600 we entered asterbeek
[02:14:02] where we met members of the Dutch underground movement who showed us the easiest route to the bridge
[02:14:09] we were moving cautiously in a file ready for action and everything seemed a little bit too quiet
[02:14:14] at 0-630 as dawn was breaking we moved up into a built up area and then it started
[02:14:21] the enemy had been busy overnight preparing gun emplacements taking up positions at vantage
[02:14:25] points posting snipers and concealing tanks and SP guns German gunfire shattered the piece and I
[02:14:34] darted for cover and took up position in the neatly laid out garden of a nearby house
[02:14:38] more firing came from the house direction with two other men I ran around the back of the house
[02:14:43] and fired as two Germans in the shrubbery they must have had their chips with two other men
[02:14:50] I round around the back of the house and fired at two Germans in the shrubbery they must have
[02:14:55] had their chips amid the smoke and fire of machine guns SP guns and six barrel mortars the
[02:15:01] battle ranged the battle raged and built to such a pitch that I became quite accustomed to it
[02:15:08] and went about the task as if on street fighting training back in home we hadn't eaten since
[02:15:15] leaving England but I was too busy to be hungry casualties were mounting mounting incredibly fast
[02:15:21] and in every direction I could see motionless forms of our men cut down in their tracks
[02:15:26] progress was slow and the battle became more intense as the bridge loomed gradually nearer
[02:15:33] with two other chaps I did not know I chased after some Germans in a house
[02:15:37] we threw a grenade in and dashed to the door to finish them off with stand and rifle
[02:15:41] looking around for any more of the enemy we were built we built it to the rear of the house
[02:15:46] I tripped over a broken fence and went sprawling as I scrambled up I heard a close wine and
[02:15:51] recognized which I recognized was a mortar I die for cover by a low wall and the bomb landed very near
[02:15:58] near enough to feel the draft snipers were taking pot shots at us dodging and weaving through
[02:16:03] gardens and backyards I came to stop at an opposite of factory held up by held up by a heavy
[02:16:09] mortar machine gun fire yet again I threw myself into the ground it was absolute bedlam
[02:16:17] with the slicing sound of German southern solar their guns their bullets cutting their
[02:16:23] in every direction and the repeated spark of mortars followed by the wine and sound of hot
[02:16:30] shrapnel hitting the rooftops a small lump lump of shrapnel hit my helmet sounding like a pee on a drum
[02:16:38] in a heat of battle men were shouting curses lobbying grenades through open doors and windows
[02:16:43] and following up with shrieks of contempt for the enemy and a cry of woo hoo Muhammad
[02:16:49] casualties really began mounting there were groans from men who had been hit motionless perilous
[02:16:55] motionless perilous lay in the road and slumped over walls I saw a pair of feet protruding from a
[02:17:01] garden gateway one boat one boot blown off but leaving the foot complete such as the magical
[02:17:08] phenomenon of war the German fire power was murderous and all I could do was keep alert for the sound
[02:17:17] of English I had a horrible feeling that my battalion was being cut to ribbons going forward a
[02:17:28] little bit there was a heck of a battle going on inside the factory and men were scrapping
[02:17:32] furiously with grenade stins called handguns and fighting knives the wall of the house opposite
[02:17:38] received a blast of machine gun fire coming from behind me I was about to move off and pursuit of a
[02:17:43] German in the garden of a terrorist house on the on my right when I felt an explosion just beneath me
[02:17:51] and a sharp pain. Reeling over and looking down I saw that the lower part of my right leg was in a
[02:17:58] most unusual position and blood was oozing out steady and fast I shouted for help and two
[02:18:04] paras dashed up quickly and rendered first aid one of them sergeant knobby hall called for medical
[02:18:11] orderly I was worried but felt like a nuisance as everyone was busy enough already without being
[02:18:19] lumbered with me I was placed on a way I was placed on a stretcher and carried into a wooden
[02:18:25] shed a few yards away where medics cut the boot off of the foot of my shattered leg smashed by an
[02:18:30] explosive bullet it looked awful but strangely I didn't feel much pain they tore open the field dressing
[02:18:38] I had carried for so long in different parts the world but never previously needed and carried out a
[02:18:44] quick but thorough job pandemonium was raining outside as machine so at this point obviously he's been
[02:18:50] wounded he's been wounded really bad his leg is in very rough shape he can't walk pandemonium was
[02:18:59] raining outside as machine gun fire echoed around the built up area a mortar bomb landed quite near
[02:19:04] but the medic administrating a more-feet injection kept a steady hand as if he were in the safety
[02:19:11] of a hospital back in England so the talk about detaching the medic is just cool and calm
[02:19:20] while the other medic hunted around for suitable makeshift splint a young Dutch girl appeared
[02:19:24] from nowhere and offered me a welcome cup of water I was feeling cold and clammy and her help
[02:19:29] was a great comfort as was the morphine which soon began to take effect there was another series of
[02:19:35] explosions just ahead a clear signal to get moving and I was carried cautiously to the corner of
[02:19:41] a house next to the road I'd come down only a short while ago everyone was scattered
[02:19:48] everyone was scattered and there were dead paras in the road on the sidewalk and in the gardens
[02:19:54] snipers were busy and our men were bent on winkling them out there was a thud a whiz and a bark
[02:19:59] of an exploding shell followed by another and another all bursting on the rooftops of houses
[02:20:04] thirty yards back then something flash from an upper window only twenty yards ahead and bullets
[02:20:08] splattered on the wall above us the medic set me down to wait for an opportune met moment to get
[02:20:13] across the road and I saw four paras press themselves into the wall of the building opposite
[02:20:18] as they worked their way toward that flash went under the window the leading parac kick the
[02:20:23] door out and out of the window came a potato masher which he immediately picked up and threw back
[02:20:30] in the potato masher is the classic German grenade with a long handle on it which they did so
[02:20:37] that they could throw grenades as far as as the Americans could because we play baseball and they
[02:20:42] play soccer and you don't kick you don't kick grenades you have to throw them the leading parac
[02:20:50] kick the door and out of the window came a potato masher which he immediately picked up and
[02:20:55] threw back in a company by a mills bomb which is their grenade thrown by another man there was
[02:20:59] quite some explosion following which four paras entered the building spring stand gun fire in the
[02:21:04] room and threw up through the floorboards a trick we had learned in training I was more than
[02:21:12] relieved to get out of the line of fire was carried into the relative safety of a garden wall
[02:21:16] as I laid helpless behind the wall I had a clear view of the clatter and confusion in the battle
[02:21:21] and the through the demolished gateway so he goes on here obviously I'm not covering the whole
[02:21:29] book but covering some sections of things that are unfolding I was moved with a number of
[02:21:35] other wounded men to a nearby barn where I spent a fairly easy night thanks to the powerful effects
[02:21:41] of the morphine injection I'd been given early the following morning all was reasonably quiet
[02:21:46] in the immediate vicinity although I could hear the sound of battle not far off looking around the
[02:21:51] barn I didn't recognize anyone from my first paty and and those men I spoke to did not want to
[02:21:57] know they were either too preoccupied with their wounds or unable to talk at all some of them
[02:22:03] looked as though they had just lived through a nightmare which I would say is an accurate statement
[02:22:08] and again it's like everything that he's talking about is just you know complete mayhem combat
[02:22:21] that's what he's talking about it's just totally out of control and finally it settles down a
[02:22:25] little bit for that night and it sounds like maybe the probably the brits at that point
[02:22:30] it done a good counter attack maybe established a perimeter unfortunately doesn't last at about 0700
[02:22:40] two medics came up to me and said that my turn was next this is as they're trying to extract them
[02:22:47] lifting the stretcher they carried me to a waiting Jeep it's engine running there were
[02:22:51] four walking wounded in the back seat and I was strapped to the front of the bonnet alongside
[02:22:55] another chap who was already strapped in on the on beside the what windscreen he forced to grin
[02:23:02] what's yours I asked they got me in the guts he said bluntly that's a nasty place to cop it I
[02:23:09] thought feeling sorry for him a short stocky medic jumped in the driver seat saying hold tight
[02:23:15] in the back and don't worry you two in front on the bonnet we might have a rough ride and it will be a bit
[02:23:20] fast what do you even do I mean they take you they put you on a stretcher on the hood of a
[02:23:33] freaking Jeep and they're like and the medic says hold on to the guys in the back and says hey
[02:23:38] up front don't they've got them strapped down there's nothing they can do they can't move I wouldn't
[02:23:42] want to do that on a Tuesday afternoon you know going to like to the market I mean imagine
[02:23:49] I'm like hey I'm taking the market I put you on the hood of my car strap you down and say hey it's
[02:23:53] going to be a little rough. After a fast fast forward after a fast bumpy journey the Jeep
[02:24:02] tore through Usterbeek passed the net the original headquarters at the heart and steam hotel
[02:24:08] and pulled up sharply in the drive of the taffled berigo tell a few hundred yards farther on
[02:24:14] airborne medics quickly unstrap me and took me inside setting me down on the floor opposite a window
[02:24:19] in the entrance hall the hotel taffled berigo had been German field marshal walther model
[02:24:26] modells headquarters prior to our arrival the previous Sunday and we were now using it as an improvised
[02:24:32] military hospital it must have taken a few knocks as it was now in absolute shambles as usual
[02:24:39] the British Tommy had managed to brew up even in such hazardous conditions and I was given a mug of
[02:24:44] tea and a bar of chocolate my first foods in sleeping in England two days earlier I had not touched
[02:24:49] my ghastly iron ration I tried to sleep but with the interruption of shelling and mortar fire
[02:24:54] prevented that when night fell I just long for daylight to come again I hated the nights it was bad
[02:25:00] enough to be meeting angry Germans in battle but it was worse to do so while I slept the next day
[02:25:08] Wednesday I was grateful to be taken into the operating room ingeniously rigged up in the kitchen
[02:25:14] of the hotel so he gets some he gets some preliminary worked on on his wounds and of course the
[02:25:22] brits I know I've talked about this they like to brew up their tea and they will do it that's how they
[02:25:29] roll I was returned to the entrance hall where the den of battle embolitating the wall outside
[02:25:35] maybe look out I was surprised to be is to see a German wandering about so pictures is you're in a
[02:25:40] hospital you just got like the shrapnel cut out your leg they sit taken set you down and now you're
[02:25:45] watching the battle out of window and you see a German wandering around he took up a stand position
[02:25:52] by the door and then began pacing up and down just then there was a loud crump outside and debris
[02:25:58] plaster and glass fell all around I looked to see where that one landed and the German I had seen
[02:26:04] outside only a few moments ago was now sprawled out killed I presumed by one of his own mortar bombs
[02:26:10] but that should tell you with a situation there there's Germans outside the window walking around
[02:26:17] I was set down at the head of the stairs to my right leg glider pilot who had a face and arm injury
[02:26:24] amid all the wounded who covered most of the landing area came a wounded man walking our eyes met
[02:26:29] did I know him I hardly knew anyone they were unrecognizable clotted up with blood and dirt
[02:26:35] then up the stairs belted some combat paras and we asked them how it was going I had to
[02:26:45] had to capture this because this is just as british as it gets so these there's like we just said
[02:26:50] there's Germans walking around outside this places total shambles and they see a couple paras and he
[02:26:55] says hey how's it going and one of the paras answers not too bad not too bad could be a bit better
[02:27:02] before disappearing back down again that's like that's a no factor response yeah oh by the way
[02:27:10] we're about to get overrun but not too bad not too good be better but you know we got this
[02:27:18] fast forward a little bit a wounded man with his arm and a sling approached me with an inquiring look
[02:27:22] what unit chum he asked almost in a whisper first pair I replied I'm in a shower of dust and smoke
[02:27:29] as yet another shell exploded very near he went and withdrew from the direction of the shell blast
[02:27:36] just as we felt the ominous vacuum of warm air he was almost incoherent as he glanced around the
[02:27:42] terrible scene of man-made destruction I just left the bridge he said there was quite a pause what's
[02:27:49] it like there I asked he swung around glaring at me as if the whole war was my fault his eyes
[02:27:54] hard staring and red with fatigue the poor fellow had been hit through with something bad
[02:28:01] I offered him a cigarette and with a trembling hand he took one it hung limping his grasp
[02:28:07] thanks I don't really smoke but I'll have when he said then he answered it was bloody hell there
[02:28:12] tanks belching fire blocks getting killed left and right the carnage was terrible
[02:28:18] he paused as a medic passed by with a man clutching his side and hoveling on one leg a bloody
[02:28:23] congealed bandage wrapped around the stump where once had been a foot my lad drew hard on the
[02:28:29] cigarette and coughing continued there were hordes of them they went on for hours attacking
[02:28:36] shelling then the bastard started burning us out my two mates got killed the twisted and broken
[02:28:44] bodies of our men were strewn everywhere he leaned back against the wall looking a little
[02:28:49] mortise I don't know but I think it may have been the first I may have been the first person he had
[02:28:55] spelt out his experiences too they're he told me that it was his first time in action
[02:29:02] I thought he had ridden it bloody well the next few days seemed to drag on forever with my leg
[02:29:09] giving me much more pain now than it had during the first 24 hours after I was hit
[02:29:14] and so obviously these guys are rallied up and they're suffering but it doesn't mean that
[02:29:22] they're safe continuing on there are so many shells landing in on and around the building
[02:29:27] plus the occasional burst of machine gun fire spattering the inner walls that I imagine we
[02:29:31] must be slapped bang in in the front line or somewhere in no man's land by the way that's the
[02:29:37] field hospital there were hundreds of wounded in enemy included as well as Dutch people caught up in the
[02:29:44] fight so many that some got moved to the hotels and acts across the driveway and any man with
[02:29:49] flesh wounds or injuries that did not hinder the use of a firearm was ordered outside to fight
[02:29:56] so if you could fight now it's time it was now the 23rd of September and I was lying still
[02:30:03] at the head of the broad stairway and there was commotion down below those ruddy hunds again
[02:30:08] said the glider pilot there was a shuffling in German orders were being wrapped the out
[02:30:14] then some SS troops dashed up the stairs a sinister looking type about 20 years old led the way
[02:30:21] and was coming right out of it coming right at me I found myself looking straight down the barrel of his
[02:30:25] schmizer his trigger finger shaking I didn't bat an eyelid I just did not want to have set
[02:30:30] him and give him a cause to let rip he was glaring at me with red BDI's Christ this is it I thought
[02:30:37] I had heard of other wounded being shot up but my luck was in any past me by he and two other
[02:30:43] SS men had a good look around and took a and then took up firing positions at windows in rooms leading
[02:30:49] off the landing as they started to fire out Colonel Warwick dast up the stairs swearing and
[02:30:55] rebuking them for firing from a clearly marked red cross building discipline took over they look
[02:31:01] to find and so on but with fingers handling their automatic's hesitantly they reluctantly obey
[02:31:06] the officers command and stop firing so as I talked about early with the
[02:31:13] and clearly these are some Germans that have respect for the law of armed conflict
[02:31:19] and they there which let's just start with this we're in the hospital building and now we got
[02:31:24] the the Germans in the building using it as a firing position I don't even know what to say about this
[02:31:32] like what what is that even how do you even translate that into into reality your wounded your
[02:31:38] your hospital is getting mortar to machine gun and then there's German enemy soldiers in your
[02:31:44] building firing from inside your building walking around looking at you oh and he comments about this
[02:31:56] it was most strange to have enemy in the building one minute only be replaced by your own combat
[02:32:00] men the next so that's his statement about it is that yeah strange I wondered how the rest of
[02:32:08] my first parabatian were doing right from the Sunday night our our company had a tough time
[02:32:13] losing half of its men in the D lyridudal area then 40 men of six platoon as company were killed
[02:32:23] in two minutes on the approach to Archnem Arnhem and in the denbrink St. Elizabeth's hospital
[02:32:32] and factory area the rest of the battalion was badly mauled in the midst of it all father
[02:32:41] Benson a Roman Catholic priest was busy making his rounds and answering urgent calls
[02:32:48] one man so constantly needed things began to get on my nerves that morning
[02:32:57] which is kind of interesting because he's been through all this stuff he's wounded
[02:33:03] he's surrounded by the enemy he's on his whatever however many hundreds of days in close combat
[02:33:09] that he's been in over the past few years and now that he's wounded and surrounded and there's
[02:33:15] men screaming and dying all around them things are getting on his nerves a little bit this morning
[02:33:20] makes sense that's that's what that's what rages up to so things began to get on my nerves that
[02:33:27] morning what with the continuous den of battle outside in my leg getting more painful through lack of
[02:33:33] proper medical attention I called for father Benson to offer a few words of comfort so he came and put
[02:33:39] me at my ease later he was too as wounded by tank fire into the building I'm sorry to say that he
[02:33:45] died from those wounds and was buried in the grounds of St. Elizabeth's hospital on the following day
[02:33:54] the disposition was frightening once again under statement the British under statement because
[02:34:03] as far as I'm concerned everything up to this point is completely horrifying on the following day
[02:34:09] the disposition was frightening our men were still doing their damnness but the Germans were slowly
[02:34:15] closing in very slowly mark you for they lost heavily and had to fight for every inch of the
[02:34:20] bloody ground they got there with things getting hotter still I was moved again to what was thought to be
[02:34:28] a safer spot just to the other side and along the landing area suddenly there was an all mighty
[02:34:35] explosion in the room on my right men were already wounded once twice were hit again in somewhere killed
[02:34:42] there were pittiest cries coming from that room it was at this time that major John Wadi
[02:34:48] of the 156 parachute battalion who had started his parachute days in India when the battalion was
[02:34:54] first formed was wounded again and two English medics and a Dutch nurse were killed a medic now
[02:35:00] came out cradling a form in his arms the chapy carried could have been dead or unconscious
[02:35:06] he was covered in blood and his arm was shattered and hung prophetically by his side his left leg
[02:35:11] bandaged from his first wounding Christ I wish I were outside there was another resounding crash
[02:35:24] of bombs followed by curses perhaps I was better off in here it was bloody awful for everyone
[02:35:30] everywhere outside the situation was getting completely out of hand further enemy reinforcements
[02:35:37] were mustering around the perimeter in the form of powerfully armed tanks from the SS Panzer
[02:35:43] divisions with long barreled high explosives and armor piercing shells
[02:35:48] the passage where I lay ran from front to rear the hotel and I was facing the rear with a
[02:35:53] grandstand view of the battle through a gaping hole in the wall where once there had been a window
[02:35:58] now and again one of our men would break cover to stock the enemy and the enemy would repeat
[02:36:03] the process with the multiple accompaniment of shell burst tank fire machine gun fire curses and
[02:36:10] yelps of pain I heard the ominous sound of an approaching tank I couldn't see it but the
[02:36:18] squeaking of its caterpillar wheels grew even louder then it came into view it's great gun
[02:36:24] traversing from right to left picking its way through the trees it stopped for a few minutes to
[02:36:31] feel its way and then the gun barked out sending a shell across my front to an unseen target
[02:36:39] the other wounded were lying huddled together trying to afford each other protection
[02:36:44] the floor was littered with debris blood and glass and there was an incest and wind and explosion
[02:36:49] of mortar bombs together with the shrieking crash of artillery vibrating the very foundations of the
[02:36:54] building which I thought when it's some point tumbled down I don't know what time it was when the
[02:37:00] shelling and gun fire stopped but after a den of the last six days it felt very strange to suddenly
[02:37:07] be so much quieter there were still spasmotic firing in the distance and a little shelling
[02:37:14] but nothing to worry about we began to converse more freely gone on strike Jerry one man almost
[02:37:21] shouted except that his head half his mouth bandaged from a shell splinter wound nah he's packed
[02:37:28] up as Jerry and buggered off a cockney put in the glider pilot was more cautious crafty saw
[02:37:34] is the hunt he's got something up his sleeve then I saw men being carried downstairs with great
[02:37:41] activity going on outside but not of battle two medics picked me up both of them silent and not
[02:37:49] looking to please where to now I asked the Elizabeth hospital one told me the enemy had overrun us
[02:37:56] and was calling the shots so the Germans were now in control he gets taken out south outside
[02:38:12] was a ghastly site with the fallen dead of both our sides lying where they had gone down
[02:38:19] British and German medical orderlies were putting the wounded into jeeps and various other vehicles
[02:38:24] including two small vans improvised as makeshift ambulances three of us stretcher cases were
[02:38:30] loaded into a small open German lorry with shallow sides which would prevent us from bouncing off
[02:38:35] and transit there was just enough room for five walking wounded now they're on this drive we all
[02:38:45] had shattered bones of some sort which made us cry out and pain during the rough ride in this
[02:38:50] antico anticoated lorry and I was still more than pleased when it finally came to a stand still
[02:38:56] at journeys end at the hospital there had clearly been heavy fighting and as spent cartridges could
[02:39:01] see be seen littering the floor and entranceway I heard that familiar voice of a friend what the
[02:39:08] hell are you doing on that stretcher scrounging for a lift I went to answer but nothing came out
[02:39:14] can you imagine you go to the hospital and the floor has got bullets chasing all over it
[02:39:25] word got around that the whole show was over and I began to wonder what really went wrong
[02:39:30] the battle had been lost but it had been some fight as mortar sergeant Dick winning him later
[02:39:36] Riley remarked we may have lost the battle at our nm but we did come in second it should be noted
[02:39:44] that there had not only been a great loss of life in this battle but also massive local
[02:39:49] destruction with one or one in four houses totally destroyed in most of the remainder badly damaged
[02:40:02] and so again you know I talked about the scene the different sides of the Germans and you know
[02:40:08] we already saw some of the Germans the prisoners being second by what the kind of civilian
[02:40:14] casualties were taking places they evacuated done Kirk the the Germans that were firing inside
[02:40:19] the hospital and then when they get told by an unarmed you know leader hey get out of here there's
[02:40:24] okay fine they're grumpy but they leave just the fact that these the patients are the wounded are
[02:40:32] getting treated actually pretty well so they end up in this sort of makeshift hospital
[02:40:41] South African orthopedic surgeon captain Alexander Lippman castle was going to see me
[02:40:47] he commanded one of the surgical teams of the 16 pair of field ambulance I was thankful that I was
[02:40:51] not going to have a German butcher I had seen the end result of a German doctor's amputation of a
[02:40:57] man's foot crudely almost guillotine and without anesthetic I was carried into a large room with
[02:41:02] medical apparatus everywhere trowlies and tables laden with all sorts of instruments bandages field
[02:41:07] dressing in splints I was placed on a hard narrow table about four feet from the ground in the distance
[02:41:12] I could hear the sound of gunfire and German flock which meant that our aircraft were in the vicinity
[02:41:19] the anesthesiists put up had his needle at the ready and medics were preparing for the operation
[02:41:24] when there was a noise rather like a giant balloon having air released and then a terrific explosion
[02:41:31] with a very quick presence of mind one medic threw a blanket over me and shielded me from the
[02:41:35] blast with his own body as shattered glass fell in small pieces and slivers all over the operating theater
[02:41:43] then all went quiet again and the blanket was pulled carefully to reveal yours truly with popping
[02:41:49] eyes my treatment had to wait another day while the place was cleaned up
[02:41:52] fortunately for me the next visit was uninterrupted the wound was cleaned and redressed
[02:41:58] and I had my first plaster cast put on and so like I said it seems like at this point it's
[02:42:05] it's relatively civilized I mean if you can forgive a bomb exploding while you're about to get surgery
[02:42:12] but relatively civilized compared to what they'd been through at one point there's an SS officer
[02:42:18] comes in and they kind of go through the different individuals there and they finally get to him
[02:42:24] and when he tells him he's an airborne guy they say you're going to prison a work app
[02:42:31] and he says here was September 28th there was a 28th of September when German orderly
[02:42:36] he's carried me out of the hospital not so carefully as our own medics and I had to hang on
[02:42:40] to the sides of the stretchers we descended the stone steps at the entrance to avoid sliding off
[02:42:44] and now he gets transported again this time he ends up at the Villem 3 concern barracks
[02:42:58] we were given iron beds with straw filled pillows and the floors were dirty there was no
[02:43:05] heating and only a meager supply of medical necessities and then at one point a doctor or or
[02:43:12] I presume he was entered the room accompanied by a rotten fear of the SS medical corps the stench
[02:43:21] from my wound caused disapproval on the face of the doctor and grabbing my big toe with his finger
[02:43:27] he slowly raised the leg which began to bend at the wound beneath the knee were both the
[02:43:32] Tibia and Fibia were broken stopping he peered at the wound inquisitively
[02:43:37] D-Mind that hurts I told him where upon he simply released the hold of my leg and let it fall in the
[02:43:42] hard table instantly turning to go looking at me in the eyes with his statistic expression as he did so
[02:43:51] you bastard square headed shite hawk I said I couldn't care less if he didn't understand the phrase
[02:43:58] he just raised an eyebrow with an inquiring looking departed while I returned to my private world of pain
[02:44:03] then the medics came back with that infernal SS guard and redress and repostured my leg
[02:44:14] so like I said there's I mean it's not great treatment but I mean let's face it he's alive
[02:44:20] and he goes on here I was at the barracks for a little more than a week
[02:44:24] when one morning I was prepared for yet another move this time a short journey to the juliana hospital in
[02:44:31] apple doom apple dorn my stay at juliana hospital is going to be the longest and best as far as
[02:44:39] medical care goes go the hospital staff with Dutch doctors and nurses helped by our own doctors
[02:44:44] and orderlies and the Germans left us well alone to fend for our own medical requirements
[02:44:50] like I said that seems fairly civilized to me and they're trying to help him out and here we go
[02:44:58] it was decided to apply a gadget called a Kirchner wire extension to my leg as both bones were broken
[02:45:03] below the knee the theory was to stretch the leg and try to marry the bones in the correct position
[02:45:08] under an injection of evapand a steel bar was shot through my ankle bone to act as an anchor
[02:45:15] a steel cable was then attached to the anchor and to a pulley apparatus below the foot of the bed
[02:45:20] weights were added each day to steadily stretch the leg otherwise I was told I would be left with a
[02:45:26] two inch shortening necessitating the use of a club boot at a later date which I didn't much
[02:45:32] care for but my general condition my general and local condition had regressed considerably
[02:45:38] and I was at my lowest ab I was now wishing that I could see the end of this confounded uses
[02:45:47] lump of decaying flesh and bone on the 19th of November I got my reluctant wish and my leg was
[02:45:55] amputated by major Peter Smith of the 133rd parachute field ambulance as I later learned it was
[02:46:03] not a moment too soon prior to the operation I had been regarded as a hopeless case one of those
[02:46:09] certain of not lasting after surgery however I made such an amazingly quick recovery that I was
[02:46:17] back to life and sitting out of bed only a week later the medical orderlies could not do enough for us
[02:46:23] from baste of fetching bed pants carrying patients from the bed to the loo and back again soothing
[02:46:29] and dying soothing the dying or reading a book for those two weeks are exhausted to do so for
[02:46:34] themselves they were always on call all hours of the day and night I wondered when they managed
[02:46:40] to eat or sleep I asked one who was passing with a bottle in his hand he answered quite cheerfully
[02:46:46] oh we get forty winks now and then with snack in between so there you go I mean almost one sentence
[02:46:56] no two sentences he was wishing that he could get this decaying hunk of flesh off of his body
[02:47:05] and the next time the next sentence is got reacted that's that's that's how much
[02:47:10] that's that's that's that's that's been as matter of fact as you can get I guess is what I'm going with this
[02:47:27] this is a one last little section of this a Polish parah who had dropped at Arknem
[02:47:33] was opposite me in the corner of the world he'd been caught up badly and was having a rough time
[02:47:38] a German military clergyman kept calling to say prayers and finally came to administer the last
[02:47:43] rights as he stood there in his dark olive green uniform black jack boots and belt
[02:47:50] peaked cap under his arm I scrutinized his close cropped bull neck and square jaw I could not
[02:47:56] help a notice and thought how strange that he wore a gunholster a man of the cloth with a pistol
[02:48:03] in a hospital what next so he talks about you know the care that he gets he starts getting moved
[02:48:16] around a lot the Germans kept shipping us out as soon as they thought we were fit enough to travel
[02:48:19] and once again I found myself in a truck this time heading to the rail station at Apple Dorn
[02:48:25] where we pulled up alongside of and boarded red cross train and of course this stuff just never
[02:48:32] gets easy daylight came with a German doing is nut and shouting spit fire actone spit fire actone
[02:48:39] I watched a lone spit fire turn and fly parallel to the train at about a hundred feet with the same
[02:48:43] distance from the train it was quite cheeky I thought the pilot was having a real close look to
[02:48:49] make sure it was a hospital train I could see clearly as goggles were off in white scarf
[02:48:53] and felt like giving him a wave as he disappeared behind some pine trees we were now in Germany with
[02:48:59] snow-covered mountains and forests of fur log cabins dotted here and there making it also pitch
[02:49:04] a risk as nightfall came we halted at a dismal looking place a small town I think unfortunately
[02:49:11] the luxury was now over and we were ushered off the train in a collection on a collection of
[02:49:18] crutches of varying lengths that were produced and given to the leg amputees so they get end up in this
[02:49:26] like just junk place we were all a bit under the weather with the added unpleasantness of an
[02:49:33] amputation one lathe and arm and a hand missing another two arms off and most like myself had lost
[02:49:41] the leg one poor fellow was the worst for blisters on his one and only foot we had a wounded medic
[02:49:47] who was with us and did all he could to help with medical minimal medical supplies we had only paper
[02:49:53] bandages it was not the best of nights on the cold stone floor but I somehow slept others were
[02:49:58] not so first fortunate and one chap did not even live to see the rest of the journey remaining
[02:50:03] motionless the next morning as we were roused by the guards so this transport continues gets on a
[02:50:11] train finally ends up at another place the snow is quite thick we pulled in what looked like a
[02:50:19] school in a small town near Munster three of the yanks of myself were told to get out and then
[02:50:24] a lorry carried on its way leaving a standing in the crisp snow a voice called welcome buddy come in
[02:50:31] he's a big American from Indiana called Marvin Adams inside he showed us to a room on the left
[02:50:38] grab yourself a pillow and bed down here I'll do yours bud he said looking me up and down
[02:50:46] how'd your manage that fella put the best foot forward at the wrong time I answered
[02:50:52] oh well the St. the Ritz but will have fun he said I wonder what he meant by that
[02:50:58] always good to be that person with a good attitude we even when you're an adam prisoner of war camp
[02:51:07] going on here the Germans guards were not existing except at night
[02:51:12] as we were all severely wounded there was thick snow outside they were obviously not worried about
[02:51:16] a massive scape food was sparse but regular and then again more moving I was just getting used to this
[02:51:27] place when word went round that Jerry was moving us some of us maybe for repatriation
[02:51:33] having only one pin meaning leg I thought I stood a good chance to be in on this then early one
[02:51:38] morning three yanks two Russians in myself were ushered to a truck and taken on a passenger train
[02:51:44] in which we travel the few miles only to detrain again perhaps to get another connection
[02:51:48] for as our yet for our as yet to be undisclosed location destination
[02:51:56] and then they get off that train they get on another train they get on this other train
[02:52:02] after shunting around a bit and hitching up to another train we rolled off again it was dusk
[02:52:08] cold and pretty dimo all told then someone struck up our version of the song bless him all
[02:52:18] and their version of the song was salt them all salt them all belong in the short and the tall
[02:52:24] salt all the sergeants and the W.O. ones salt all the corpus and their bastard sons
[02:52:31] for we're saying goodbye to them all as back to their billets they crawl you'll get no promotion
[02:52:37] aside of the ocean so cheer up me lads saw them all and he says it seemed we had joined a group of
[02:52:46] British soldiers by this was by way of an introduction they finally make it to bremen
[02:52:58] we pulled in slowly and as the train came to a stop there were sounds of doors opening in the
[02:53:02] hustle and bustle of people getting off and making their way along the platform and then it happened
[02:53:06] an air raid warning wind out civilian military personnel immediately began scurrying about in the
[02:53:11] military I noticed did not hesitate to shove anyone else out of their way a little shot at the
[02:53:17] German military the civilians are getting pushed out of the way so they can get to cover
[02:53:23] the air was humming with aircraft american Boeing b-17 flying fortresses and our guards
[02:53:28] quick in their step way ahead of us periodically turning to beckon us to hurry it up
[02:53:32] we entered the shelter being enough for about a hundred people and after a lot of pushing and
[02:53:37] shoving settled among amid the gliers and remarks thrown our way I was happy to let it happen
[02:53:42] but somehow I'd been pushed and guided into a corner of the shelter away from the door if a bomb
[02:53:47] lands two near the the Germans take it blast take the blast and cushion any effect on us I thought
[02:53:54] there was a wooden batch fixed to the wall I dropped to it exhausted three guards it spread out between us
[02:53:59] and other occupants and when the bombing started in earnest the shelter shook I was sure
[02:54:05] wanted landed close outside because I felt it's draft reminding me of being blown off my feet
[02:54:10] in North Africa only that time it was just 50 feet away everyone fell silent as the drone of
[02:54:15] aircraft and wind and crash a bombs went on with ever increasing ferocity for a good hour before
[02:54:22] dying down to a steady drumming and an occasional distant explosion I must admit I always think of
[02:54:28] these bombing runs as taking like maybe 10 minutes but we're talking about a good hour
[02:54:40] people began to chatter this is once everything's kind of faded people began to chatter
[02:54:45] as interfered dispersed and external barvato took over I could hear the gnashing of teeth
[02:54:51] glances accompanying finger pointing in our direction the crowd is getting rest if in a big
[02:54:56] man started pouring forth with words of abuse a big frow about 40 years old worked her way near
[02:55:03] to us until she was only a couple feet away I felt the murt moisture of her spiddlesty argued with
[02:55:08] the guards about the privilege we had being allowed to be in the same shelter as the German people
[02:55:13] I gathered that was a crux of the matter that was the crux of the matter at this point a heavy
[02:55:18] booted foot came out and started propelling my way I parried firmly with my right hand and the boot
[02:55:24] just brushed my balls coming to a harmless glancing blow on my left thigh the guards stood firm
[02:55:30] restraining the woman and trying to calm everyone down it was only then that I noticed
[02:55:36] a familiar sound in French our guards were Frenchmen constricted in the German army
[02:55:44] anyway they saved my nuts from being cracked there must have been another hours wait at the
[02:55:51] station another back going to transfer again there must have been another hours waited the station until
[02:55:56] I an old army type lorry with solid tires turned up or sorry they were waiting for truck
[02:56:03] I couldn't care less at this stage provided I didn't have to hobble on crutches before long
[02:56:07] I saw the large POW camp ahead with its eight foot high wire fences and guards platform
[02:56:12] sticking up like store thumbs all around there was a collection of dingy looking huts dotting the interior
[02:56:18] the lorry slowed at the gate and the senior guard jumped down through the hand to go through the
[02:56:25] handing over ceremony then the big wood and wire gates creed open and the lorry jerked into the
[02:56:31] compound where out we tumbled I was exhausted and sweating as if I just come out of a Turkish bath
[02:56:39] my stump was throbbing I stayed lying on the ground where I landed managing to support myself on
[02:56:44] one elbow while the rest of the party sat knelt or remained standing with the aid of their crutches
[02:56:51] I didn't want a welcoming committee but wished that someone would show us where to go
[02:56:55] one of the guards was busy having a chat and laughed with his mate eventually he gave us the go ahead
[02:57:00] and the party moved off slowly and weirdly I found myself left behind I tried to get up but I could
[02:57:04] not muster enough strength to make it so I started crawling dragging the crutches
[02:57:08] I'd only manage five or six yards when I heard voices and saw two pairs of gated boots come
[02:57:14] come on me old mate a voice said we'll give you a lift on which they lifted me with ease and
[02:57:21] carried me I don't know how far I didn't even get a glimpse of their faces to say thanks
[02:57:28] sinking down onto a straw mattress I just slept and slept for the next two days when I woke
[02:57:34] I found that I was in Stolog X1B in Saxony along with a large number of other airborne men
[02:57:42] it was not long before I contracted more complaints to add to my already sorry condition
[02:57:48] Lysen bugs were in abundance in my hut the nights were the worst the iron stove was stoked right
[02:57:54] up at night and the heat was awful with all the doors and windows shut tight urine buckets
[02:57:59] would fill to the brim and no time making the stench nauseous I went down with dysentery
[02:58:04] plurzy and scarlet fever which together with my amputation meant that I did not feel all that good
[02:58:13] red is hard as nails if I had wanted to die I would have but fortunately that didn't enter my head
[02:58:24] little key note as I read that I thought hmm let's think about that
[02:58:31] if you want to die if you want to give up you there's the time but luckily fortunately for him
[02:58:38] that thought did not enter his head after a short time promising news
[02:58:43] again I'm jumping ahead like this is what we're talking every little thing that he just talked
[02:58:48] about is a nightmare and he's got him all at the same time it's been a while since we talked about
[02:58:55] lice on the podcast yeah we've been missing out on that one we think lice is no big deal
[02:59:03] because your kid gets it and then you get some special little medicine from the store and then you put
[02:59:07] it in their hair or you shave their head and and either way prom solved these guys are got it
[02:59:15] and there's no way to get rid of it this is by the way wall that got dysentery and plurzy
[02:59:23] and scarlet fever and an amputation however fast forward a little bit after a short time promising
[02:59:33] news I was told that I was going to be repatriated I boarded yet another train no sooner than we
[02:59:37] set off that there was a terrific woosh in the train stopped in the middle nowhere I could hear the
[02:59:41] gutteral tang twang of German civilians as they ran hell for leather on each side of the train
[02:59:46] to take cover from what must have been our own aircraft overhead one of the guards just
[02:59:50] the moose and left it to us looking down to the track I saw that it was much too high for me to jump
[02:59:54] with only one leg the some of our party of eight jumped and took cover I found my pants and don't
[03:00:02] know whether it was fright or the dysentery that was still with me the planes returned they were
[03:00:08] to rocket firing RAF typhoons which specialized in ground attack I recognized the sound as they
[03:00:14] got nearer there was another woosh and then another followed by an ear splitting explosion
[03:00:19] the carriage shook so violently that I thought we were going to topple over as always in such a
[03:00:24] task it was over in no time with such a tax it was over in no time and all of a suddenly peaceful again
[03:00:33] so they have to go and repair this train and then finally we had reached a snug little village
[03:00:37] called Myzberg on the German side of the border with Belgium and once again we see some nicer
[03:00:46] treatment our first job was to be cleaned up and we were taken in pairs into the shower I was
[03:00:50] asked to remove all personal items from my pockets and all clothing was to be cleaned and few
[03:00:54] amigated don't worry you'll get everything back and English medic told me here put this on it was
[03:00:59] a sort of cotton smock which tied in the back was just long enough to cover to the knee first in
[03:01:03] came a great big American with the same garb with forms like tree branches he lifted me bodily with
[03:01:10] the ease of samps and himself mind you I was down from 14 stone to just over eight since last
[03:01:18] September and to translate that into American English he weighed 196 pounds in September and now
[03:01:26] he weighs 112 on reaching the shower is made ask can you stand on one leg bud sure I said
[03:01:36] samps and it taken his smock off and proceeded to bathe me while herkilly steadyed me I was carried
[03:01:42] back to a most luxurious bed with white sheets God knows where the when they scrounge the sheets
[03:01:48] but trust the yanks there were approximately 40 wounded there a mixture of English French and
[03:01:53] American with four American and two English orderlies one of the walking wounded act that is a
[03:01:59] cook all the others doing menial tasks they did not mind though so he's in this pretty
[03:02:07] car can I even say let's say let's just say and improved situation and improved situation is what is
[03:02:14] he and that goes on a little bit or even he calls it the luxury things began to live in
[03:02:24] up outside the rumbling in the distance grunier and groups of bejragled weary looking Germans
[03:02:31] plotted through the village the wounded born by horse and cart field guns were manhandled
[03:02:37] the luxury of any motorized transport being afforded to senior officers only who clearly
[03:02:42] wished to withdraw in his dignified manner as possible leaving hunter officers to do all the
[03:02:50] donkey work along with the shoots and and suffer all the humiliation of being seen by their own
[03:02:56] countrymen it was a pathetic sight like a cutting from the first world war film archives as the
[03:03:03] dawn approached the throb of motorized transport and tanks was very near so he's seeing the Germans
[03:03:11] kind of walking back he's seeing the officers in the vehicles the German officers in the vehicles
[03:03:16] and the German troops walking or being carried if they were wounded and years tank activity right
[03:03:26] which is kind of an indication where you have tank activity but you see people withdrawing with horses
[03:03:30] and garages that's an indication that perhaps the tanks that we're hearing are good friendly
[03:03:37] as dawn approached the throb of motorized transport and the tanks was very near
[03:03:41] you could hear the squeak of the tanks wheels rubbing against the caterpillar track
[03:03:45] thirsty for lubrication edging and shunting into position for the impending advance in the village
[03:03:53] that noise that a tank makes in the city is just wind well who is the awesome
[03:04:01] and and it's also horrifying like these guys when they're hearing the German tanks outside when they're
[03:04:06] in that that battle whether about to be overrun the horror can't even imagine of tanks coming
[03:04:13] and now the joy which I got to experience some of the joy in the body of hey the tanks are coming
[03:04:18] it's glorious and god bless the tankers and here these guys feel in the same way the American
[03:04:25] orderlies were jubilant they're here lie me the yanks are here exploded Hank anyone who get up walk hop
[03:04:32] or propel themselves in some way momentarily forgot their wounds in discomfort they peered
[03:04:37] through the cracks and the doors through the windows I could not see anything from my window
[03:04:41] only the Nazi flag of the local garrison hanging listless like the enemy itself
[03:04:46] bill one of the english medics came gashing and not knowing which way to turn in his excitement
[03:04:51] there's hundreds of them there's hundreds of tanks out there bloody well hundreds of them
[03:04:55] Sherman tanks of general patterns armored division had encircled the village in the early hours
[03:05:03] of that morning and were in a very advantageous position as we were in the valley and they were on the
[03:05:08] high ground every gun would have its own selected target with orders to open fire if fired upon
[03:05:17] thankfully the tanks played a waiting game with the non-existent enemy because the because unknown
[03:05:23] to the Americans the birds had flown an American scout car ventured cautiously toward
[03:05:30] the village on molested it reached the outskirts scanning the bridge buildings where white flags were
[03:05:36] protruding no sign of the enemy still in view of the tanks on the hill it became bolder and
[03:05:43] crews gently into the village our makeshift hospital with a painted red cross on the roof
[03:05:49] must have been in view of the scout car now all these goings on were being shouted by one of the
[03:05:56] medics in the passageway for the benefit of all those like me who could not see for themselves so he's
[03:06:00] getting a play by play the scout car came to a stop it's occupants clutching their automatic
[03:06:08] at the ready they must have spotted someone step carefully into view that person was a medic
[03:06:15] with a red cross arm band Hank the orderly from Ohio he was about a hundred yards from the
[03:06:21] scout car and they stealthily approached each other Hank not wishing to be mistaken for a German
[03:06:26] ruse though in the scout car not wishing to fall for any trick as they drew closer the realization
[03:06:36] dawned that they were brothers a wireless call was immediately sent to the tanks on the skyline
[03:06:43] and in minutes the village was alive to their rumble as they thundered on through leaving an
[03:06:50] accurate smell of oil and exhaust fumes I was almost home
[03:07:04] and you know I got to that point in the book and I was like well that's that's where you stop
[03:07:08] and it's definitely a good place to stop but let's take that as a stop
[03:07:20] that incredible glory of seeing the Americans seeing patents armored division rolling
[03:07:31] and knowing that he was almost home
[03:07:33] but there are some things to think about and he covers them in the epilogue here he says the
[03:07:42] casualties in the arnum area alone were eight thousand airborne killed the wounded captured
[03:07:49] or missing including poles plus more than four hundred RAF pilots in crew
[03:07:57] there were 750 Dutch civilians and underground fighters killed at least two thousand five hundred
[03:08:06] Germans and in the following winter of 1944 to 1945 some 200 thousand Dutch died of starvation
[03:08:16] so it's so it's important to understand that these you see you see this through one man's eyes
[03:08:24] but that thousands in fact hundreds of thousands were affected by this particular battle
[03:08:36] and again that might be a good place to stop but there's another note here he talks about
[03:08:40] several years later I visited the place of thinking if you will of that great man and founder of
[03:08:47] the parachute regimen Winston Churchill the war rooms situated far below ground at the
[03:08:56] treasury chambers in Westminster the existence of these a war in room war in of rooms was a well kept
[03:09:04] secret during the warriors the tour was fascinating everything remained exactly as it had been back
[03:09:09] then I sat in Churchill's chair in front of me on the desk printed on a black card
[03:09:15] printed in black on a card the words of Queen Victoria in this house we never speak of defeat
[03:09:31] in this house we never speak of defeat and he goes on in the toilet there was a red telephone
[03:09:37] a direct line to President Roosevelt in Washington in the visiting ministers room I opened a
[03:09:44] book entitled World War II on the Sicily landings and saw a training shot of members of my 11th
[03:09:52] S.A.S. Battalion to the four in the lineup were Harry Bance Corporal Hudson Jimmy Metcalf
[03:10:03] and myself
[03:10:04] down here beneath Westminster I surrounded I am sure by a dedicated team Churchill did his job
[03:10:18] extremely well I would like to think that I did my best alongside other leopards,
[03:10:26] lions and tigers of the first parachute brigade and again I really didn't get into the fact that
[03:10:44] at some at one point there there are call signs their code names had been the leopards lines and
[03:10:49] tigers that's what their the different battalions were called could be a good place to stop on
[03:10:57] a goal a little bit further this is actually in the preface of this book and he says when the war ended because
[03:11:02] this is he survived he was home when the war ended I found it a little difficult initially
[03:11:12] knuckling down to civilian life the letter from the government saying you are now a civilian
[03:11:18] seemed so sudden I couldn't face the prospect of an office job so I tried manufacturing making
[03:11:29] handbags before joining my brother-in-law John in his landscape gardening business and then
[03:11:34] branch branching out on my own in the same line of work having an artificial leg didn't help
[03:11:41] but I didn't let it hinder me then the limb fitting center at gilling him kindly reinforced
[03:11:48] my artificial knee for kneeling several times I got a BSA motorbike and side car and had the gear
[03:11:59] is modified to operate by hand instead of foot I built my own house you do the best you can
[03:12:11] again again I mean hey found a little rough to guess what I'm gonna go I'm gonna go to work
[03:12:25] I'm gonna start a business I'm gonna build a house I'm gonna drive a motorbike around the
[03:12:29] country with a side car you do the best you can and I also wanted to say that he wasn't alone
[03:12:46] he obviously need that side car for someone and I'm quite sure that that was one of the
[03:12:52] dedications of the book is for Betty Francis Regis wife who who as he puts it helped me so much
[03:13:07] and the last thing I'll say the last thing I'll read from this book I should say is the
[03:13:16] dedication and he says I dedicate this book to all my airborne friends who never came back
[03:13:38] whose actions made it possible for me and other airborne friends to enjoy over
[03:13:45] 70 years of living and that is well that's the parts I'm gonna read from this book but
[03:14:02] um red shirt is died on January 29th 2016 94 years old
[03:14:20] he was the last surviving member of the original first parachute battalion the last of
[03:14:27] those initial 500 men that took that step forward and volunteered for parachute and command
[03:14:35] no training in 1940 in the book the book which is called the memory indoors the book it's actually
[03:14:46] not available on Amazon it's not available in book stores I actually got it I got it from somebody that
[03:14:52] sent it to me and with no inscription in it it says he sent me a note it says dear jacco
[03:15:01] keep up the great work best wishes I believe it says Rick or Rich so that's where I got the book
[03:15:10] from luckily it was sent to me I wouldn't have known about it otherwise if you want to get this book
[03:15:16] which you should it's available from pilots publishing dot co dot uk and there's also a Facebook page
[03:15:25] the memory facebook dot com slash the memory indoors and as it says in the book
[03:15:33] the authors royalties in respect of this book will be donated to the parachute regiment charity
[03:15:48] and there you go another hero teaching us the sacred lesson that we must never forget that
[03:16:01] life is a gift and as rich Curtis tells us what you do with that is you do the best you care
[03:16:19] you do the best to that you care and with that echo echo Charles as I decompressed over here
[03:16:28] a little bit maybe got some ideas of how how we can be the best we can use what do you got for us
[03:16:37] I one of the many things that I took was I don't know if it was his attitude or if that's the
[03:16:47] culture or both you know could be a bit better and then that was the other guy right who was like
[03:16:53] could be a bit better do we do better yeah so on these terrible conditions right could be a bit
[03:17:01] oh oh you talk about the guy that says not too bad not too bad could be better could be better
[03:17:09] so you know like I said probably probably both right attitude plus culture so the attitude right
[03:17:16] one things when you go through adversity you can have that attitude not too bad not too bad could
[03:17:23] be better hey we're about to get overrun and there's a strong possibility we're going to get
[03:17:28] killed right not too bad not too bad could be better yeah could be better positive thought pattern
[03:17:34] there yeah it's kind of like well it's really a good news bad news yeah it's also a realistic view
[03:17:39] right yeah hey I'm still walking hey I still got ammunition yeah and by the way it's not not too bad
[03:17:45] means we don't have to do anything could be better though maybe there's some things we can work on
[03:17:50] yes yeah well I forget what movie it was when he's like I got good news and bad I think
[03:17:55] I'd been tango and cash I don't know maybe maybe not but anyway he said how are good news and bad news
[03:18:01] it was what's the bad news we're almost almost out of gas and he's like well what's the good
[03:18:06] news we're almost dead again so sad it's too good man so just you know speaking of attitudes good
[03:18:13] and bad what we're doing one of the many things is jujitsu okay so that's a really good news bad
[03:18:19] news scenario as well really what's the bad news bad news is you're gonna get choked
[03:18:26] from time to time I know this firsthand that's that's the bad news but the good news is you are
[03:18:34] exposed to an environment that will teach you how to choke others if the need may arise
[03:18:42] good yes so good news is you're getting choked are sorry bad news is you're getting choked
[03:18:49] yes good news is you're getting choked which means you're learning how to defend also choke
[03:18:54] of the people yes so if we're competitively well that could be good or bad news whatever
[03:19:00] so it's a matter of your attitude really how is your attitude like the on getting
[03:19:05] choked you know a lot of learning you know not a little learning what do you call it when you
[03:19:10] relearn something you know lessons lesson repetitive repetitive learning sessions hey it's not any
[03:19:17] not a new population you know it's repetitive well it is it's both I imagine that you get choked one
[03:19:21] time you'll never get choked again no no that's not the one that happens with the jujitsu so we are it
[03:19:27] sounds like jujitsu even though there's a negative possible thing right but it's not too bad not too bad
[03:19:34] it could be better if you try it yes start training the more you train the better you get so there you go
[03:19:41] anyway well we're training we're going to need a geek cause you're going to do geek what do you
[03:19:44] do not do geek well I guess that's possible but okay I'm not recommended no no I recommend
[03:19:49] are you going to fight people all the time that are just wearing shorts no no what if you get
[03:19:54] in a street fight okay if you get a street fight at the beach maybe what if you get a street fight
[03:19:59] at the supermarket yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah you were taking the last you
[03:20:06] know and really that's like that's the last one you were broccoli yeah you don't like that you
[03:20:13] gotta fight them for something like this but that's even just one of the actually teeny tiny way
[03:20:18] of looking at it where it's like okay oh I see you're saying because the chance of you getting
[03:20:23] in actual fight are pretty low.
[03:20:26] If you're still trying to get a point,
[03:20:28] not to say that you should, not, you know,
[03:20:30] I'm not saying that, but they're pretty low.
[03:20:32] This is what I'm saying.
[03:20:33] And especially if you're gonna avoid
[03:20:35] getting a new fight, if you're smart,
[03:20:38] you're smart, yes.
[03:20:38] The problem is you can't always avoid it.
[03:20:40] You can maybe a situation and here's the deal.
[03:20:43] If you are forced into a situation
[03:20:46] that where you have to defend yourself
[03:20:48] and you don't know how the result is catastrophic.
[03:20:51] You have to be catastrophic.
[03:20:52] Why have that catastrophic possibility?
[03:20:55] Here's the deal.
[03:20:57] If that's the only reason you were training GJ2,
[03:20:59] if that was the only reason, it would be worth it.
[03:21:02] If that was the only reason, here's the deal.
[03:21:05] That's not the only reason.
[03:21:06] There's a thousand other reasons.
[03:21:08] There's an infinite more reasons, right?
[03:21:11] You're gonna get better conditioning.
[03:21:13] You're gonna get mental stimulus.
[03:21:15] You're gonna meet other human beings.
[03:21:17] You're gonna develop relationships and have friends.
[03:21:20] You're going to think you're gonna develop discipline
[03:21:24] in your life, right?
[03:21:26] This is a long list.
[03:21:27] I mean, this goes on.
[03:21:28] So even if the only thing you were gonna get
[03:21:31] was just you learn how to defend yourself.
[03:21:34] Totally worth it.
[03:21:35] Now not only are you gonna get it to defend yourself,
[03:21:37] you can be able to get these other collateral bonus things.
[03:21:41] Which by the way, some people in order to work
[03:21:44] their cardiovascular system,
[03:21:45] their ride in a spin bike somewhere.
[03:21:48] Someone else in order to work their flexibility
[03:21:50] is doing a yoga class.
[03:21:52] Someone else in order to work their strength
[03:21:54] is lifting some weights.
[03:21:56] I'm not saying, I'm not saying to go do all those things.
[03:21:59] But I'm saying you can get all three of them
[03:22:01] like a little hitter of all three of them.
[03:22:04] No problem.
[03:22:05] Get on the GJ2 bats.
[03:22:07] Yeah.
[03:22:07] Guy, nogie.
[03:22:09] Both of them.
[03:22:10] Yes.
[03:22:11] Well, yes.
[03:22:13] But if you're doing Guy only because someone
[03:22:16] on the street might be wearing certain types of clothes.
[03:22:19] Same exact point I just made.
[03:22:23] Yeah.
[03:22:24] If you're only going to do Guy because of that,
[03:22:27] it's worth it.
[03:22:28] But there's all these other beneficial things.
[03:22:30] Yes.
[03:22:31] And I'll tell you this right now.
[03:22:32] Really the number one thing that'll keep you in GJ2
[03:22:35] doing it, the number one thing.
[03:22:36] And it's maybe even by far for most people
[03:22:40] is that it's fun.
[03:22:41] I was gonna say fun.
[03:22:42] It's great.
[03:22:42] I hope we're aligned with this.
[03:22:44] To you.
[03:22:45] It's true because look, think about it.
[03:22:47] Oh yeah.
[03:22:48] I'm gonna do GJ2 for self defense.
[03:22:50] Oh yeah.
[03:22:51] That's the answer.
[03:22:52] When I started GJ2, me, when I started I was like,
[03:22:56] I'm just gonna do good enough.
[03:22:57] You know, so I can handle myself.
[03:23:00] Which is like I said about six months period.
[03:23:02] About six months, if you're an aggressive guy
[03:23:04] and you're a good athlete or strong or whatever,
[03:23:07] six months you're pretty good to go.
[03:23:09] Right?
[03:23:10] Six months of GJ2, you know what's up.
[03:23:11] It's been 20, whatever years.
[03:23:13] You know?
[03:23:14] Yeah, exactly.
[03:23:15] Right.
[03:23:16] So, oh yeah, don't, I mean, and if you tap someone out,
[03:23:20] try the first time, the first time you tap someone out.
[03:23:22] Then say like, oh yeah, that's the first time.
[03:23:24] Yeah, that's, I made that up, by the way.
[03:23:26] You're trying to impinge on my statement.
[03:23:29] Well, you might have made up saying that maybe bringing it
[03:23:32] to light, but the fact is true.
[03:23:35] So you're saying that I only quoted like a universal truth.
[03:23:39] Yeah, you know self-evident.
[03:23:41] I don't know man, because people used to ask how long
[03:23:45] should I train for?
[03:23:46] Or I had no.
[03:23:47] I mean, we got the question on the podcast.
[03:23:49] How long should I really don't like it?
[03:23:50] And the answer was, at first, like, well,
[03:23:52] you should try it for six months, oh, three months.
[03:23:53] Whatever, no, no, no.
[03:23:54] They train until you tap someone out.
[03:23:57] I don't want to use the term in anger,
[03:23:58] but you tap someone out for real,
[03:24:00] it is just you training environment.
[03:24:02] Yeah.
[03:24:03] And then you're good.
[03:24:03] Yeah, you're right.
[03:24:04] That was the specific answer.
[03:24:06] So yeah, that is yours.
[03:24:07] Okay.
[03:24:08] I'm just making sure, because I'm over here wanting full credit.
[03:24:10] That's not the last.
[03:24:12] If you're training, it just for us.
[03:24:13] If you were to set it in not such a way,
[03:24:17] like the way you set it, man, you thought you set it
[03:24:20] as if you just created like E equals NC squared over there.
[03:24:24] You like you should train until you,
[03:24:25] you were looking down your nose as you said it as if.
[03:24:29] So I had to call you out on that one.
[03:24:31] There my little bro's you go.
[03:24:32] Oh, good.
[03:24:33] I was just remembering the other day.
[03:24:35] Well, the Austrian guy that came came Kurt.
[03:24:37] Is his name?
[03:24:38] Kurt, yeah.
[03:24:39] Young Kurt.
[03:24:40] Yeah, so I asked him.
[03:24:41] I was like, Carl Longing been training.
[03:24:42] He said like a month or something.
[03:24:43] Like some kind of kind of new, really new.
[03:24:45] And so I said, have you tapped anyone out yet?
[03:24:47] And he said, yes.
[03:24:48] So like, all this guy's in the game, I knew her, Eddie.
[03:24:52] So maybe I kind of drew from that recent experience
[03:24:55] to, you know, to kind of say it.
[03:24:56] But in the last, like I was saying, if you train,
[03:24:59] only for self defense, only for self defense.
[03:25:01] Not because it's fun, not because it's a good workout,
[03:25:03] not because you got into a bunch of new friends,
[03:25:06] not because all this stuff.
[03:25:08] Only for self defense after a while, not even a long while
[03:25:11] after a short while, you can be like, I don't even know
[03:25:14] I'm doing it like, I'm not even, I'm not using it
[03:25:16] to defend myself really.
[03:25:18] Yeah, you know, because those are kind of rare, you know.
[03:25:20] And then you might not do it, you know, especially in the
[03:25:22] not fun.
[03:25:22] So there you go.
[03:25:23] And fun people, like there are people who
[03:25:26] train you just to for decades, literally decades that
[03:25:29] have never got in a fight before.
[03:25:31] Never got in a street fight, never got in it like a physical
[03:25:33] fight.
[03:25:34] So it's like, yeah, are they trained for self defense?
[03:25:36] Yeah, sure.
[03:25:37] Of course.
[03:25:37] But that's not why.
[03:25:38] Why?
[03:25:39] That's not why they're in the game.
[03:25:40] Yeah, exactly.
[03:25:41] So nonetheless, when we do it like I said, do the
[03:25:44] ghee, this can be one of it.
[03:25:45] The other part, it's no game.
[03:25:46] When you do get a ghee, you get an origin key.
[03:25:49] Yeah, 100% 100% best geese by far.
[03:25:53] So, factually.
[03:25:54] Now, same type of thing.
[03:25:56] If you're going to get an origin key, just because you
[03:26:00] want the best ghee, that's good.
[03:26:01] That's a good.
[03:26:02] That's our good reason.
[03:26:03] Like that's solid.
[03:26:04] Right?
[03:26:05] That's my reason.
[03:26:06] If you peel back the layer a little bit and you want to
[03:26:08] find out what else you're going to get, well, what
[03:26:10] else you're going to get, you're going to get the fact that
[03:26:12] you are literally rebuilding an industry and a
[03:26:17] community and an economy inside of America.
[03:26:23] You know, that's a little, that's not even a little bonus.
[03:26:26] Like there's some people that would look at that and say,
[03:26:28] I'm going to buy an origin key just because of that.
[03:26:30] Yeah.
[03:26:31] And then if I even do, you get to that sort of second
[03:26:34] thing.
[03:26:35] Yeah, I can do it.
[03:26:36] Now, if you're feeling it, let's say you're feeling it.
[03:26:39] You're feeling that part.
[03:26:41] You're feeling like America, you're feeling the economy,
[03:26:44] you're feeling the community, you're feeling the industry,
[03:26:46] you're going to bring it back, you're going to help.
[03:26:48] But you still haven't gotten over the hump of showing
[03:26:53] average of your kids to school.
[03:26:55] But you still want to support it.
[03:26:57] It's OK.
[03:26:59] It's, we'll say, I step in the right direction.
[03:27:01] We have genes that you can get.
[03:27:04] You can get genes.
[03:27:06] You're still going to help those other three.
[03:27:07] I would prefer the first thing that you get.
[03:27:10] In all seriousness, the first thing I would prefer you get
[03:27:14] is a geek because that tells me you're going to get on the map.
[03:27:16] If you, if you, because so many people,
[03:27:19] and you know what, every, well, you know what, 99% of people
[03:27:21] say when they finally start due to it,
[03:27:23] I wish I would have started, well, when I first
[03:27:26] this, blah, that's what people say.
[03:27:29] Tell you this.
[03:27:30] I'm meeting people now that are purple belts that started
[03:27:33] due to when they started listening to this podcast.
[03:27:35] So where about probably three to four years away
[03:27:39] from having somebody that started you
[03:27:40] to listen to this podcast will be a black belt in GJ2,
[03:27:45] which is an awesome achievement.
[03:27:46] Here's the thing.
[03:27:48] There's also people that will say I started listening
[03:27:51] to podcast in three years when I'm by before I started.
[03:27:54] You could have been a purple belt.
[03:27:56] Don't wait.
[03:27:56] I'm telling you right now.
[03:27:58] Like, I'm telling you right now, start your GJ2.
[03:28:02] In fact, I'm telling you that.
[03:28:04] And by the way, we touched on a little kind of combatives,
[03:28:09] hand-to-hand combat in this book.
[03:28:10] All right.
[03:28:11] And there's a whole line of a whole thread we can pull on that
[03:28:16] and we will at some point the British combatives program
[03:28:20] World War II, very cool.
[03:28:23] I've done a read a bunch about it and we'll dig into it here
[03:28:27] because it's pretty awesome.
[03:28:28] The way they were doing things, their concepts, et cetera.
[03:28:33] But if they were alive today, they'd be loaned
[03:28:37] the GJ2 all day.
[03:28:40] Yeah.
[03:28:41] And they'd be getting American geese even from England.
[03:28:45] They'd be like, you know what?
[03:28:46] Those GJs get to yank.
[03:28:48] Get yourself a yanky geese.
[03:28:49] Right?
[03:28:50] Because again, really the primary reason is because it's
[03:28:53] factually the best one.
[03:28:54] Yeah.
[03:28:55] Same thing for jeans where I would say,
[03:28:58] since I got my pair of origin jeans, which is like,
[03:29:03] oh, I'll go when you think about it when they came out.
[03:29:05] So while I go, I have not worn any other jeans ever.
[03:29:08] No.
[03:29:09] Yeah.
[03:29:10] Why would you, why would you do that?
[03:29:11] No, there's not even a reason to do that.
[03:29:13] There's not even a reason.
[03:29:13] I only have one pair too.
[03:29:14] Or I don't have three but, unless that's the only ones I wear.
[03:29:19] Also, they, we have other stuff here at origin.
[03:29:22] We do.
[03:29:23] So yeah, joggers, you know, more athletic wear,
[03:29:26] all kinds of good stuff.
[03:29:27] You go to originmain.com main like the state.
[03:29:31] Also supplements, keep yourself in the game.
[03:29:34] Yep.
[03:29:35] Propel yourself further down the path.
[03:29:38] Yep.
[03:29:39] As it were.
[03:29:39] Yep.
[03:29:40] Get yourself.
[03:29:41] Joint warfare and Krooile.
[03:29:43] Out of the gate.
[03:29:45] Once again, and I feel bad because I did this on social media.
[03:29:49] Where the guy was like, hey, what can I do to help?
[03:29:51] And I was like, I, I didn't want to be that guy.
[03:29:54] That was like, well, you know, here,
[03:29:56] try my supplement line.
[03:29:57] You know, I just don't, I just don't want to be that guy.
[03:30:00] And then later I felt bad.
[03:30:01] I was like, I should have just been straight up and said, hey, listen, man,
[03:30:04] do whatever you want to do.
[03:30:05] Get yourself some Krooile and join warfare immediately.
[03:30:08] Order that.
[03:30:09] Oh, what?
[03:30:10] You're 36 years old and you fail in sore and you're doing it.
[03:30:13] And you're at, I think I was literally asking me how my joints are.
[03:30:15] I didn't say it.
[03:30:17] Because I don't want to be that guy.
[03:30:19] Yeah.
[03:30:20] Right now I'm being that guy.
[03:30:21] You know what guy I'm being?
[03:30:22] The guy that's actually trying to help people.
[03:30:24] Because I didn't help that guy as much as I could have.
[03:30:26] I should have said, listen, do what I, you know, be consistent.
[03:30:28] Don't take big chunks of time off.
[03:30:30] Order a Krooile and oil.
[03:30:33] Join warfare right now.
[03:30:34] That's what you have to do.
[03:30:36] That's my recommendation.
[03:30:37] I feel bad for not doing that.
[03:30:38] I will try not to make that mistake again.
[03:30:41] No, I had the same experience.
[03:30:43] I went on with Pete and Brian hands in daylight.
[03:30:46] Okay.
[03:30:47] I did an episode with him recently.
[03:30:49] And he was, and Pete was saying, oh, yeah, you're like durable.
[03:30:52] Because I don't have like ailments.
[03:30:54] You know, Pete's jammed up his back.
[03:30:55] Yeah.
[03:30:56] This is like, you know, we're, I'm older than him actually.
[03:30:59] And he's like, oh, yeah, you're durable.
[03:31:01] You know, and I was like, yeah, I mean, because I never thought I was durable at all.
[03:31:06] Like, that's actually being hanged out with me.
[03:31:09] Yeah, exactly.
[03:31:11] But I was pretty fragile to be honest with you.
[03:31:13] It's fine.
[03:31:14] You guys might, because you know what Pete said to me?
[03:31:15] Like, when he was just out here, he was like, you're, he told me I was durable.
[03:31:19] Well, you're, you're.
[03:31:20] So I figured that you guys had that conversation.
[03:31:22] Because I said, that's what I call told me one time.
[03:31:24] Anyway, you told me, when you told me that,
[03:31:25] they've been like, it, when you told it to me, it had been like you had been contemplating
[03:31:29] it for quite some time.
[03:31:31] You were like, you know what I figured out about you?
[03:31:32] And I was like, what?
[03:31:33] And you said, you're durable.
[03:31:34] Yeah, like a tank.
[03:31:35] I was like, that's interesting.
[03:31:36] And I had to kind of agree with it.
[03:31:38] Yes.
[03:31:39] And so he said that I was durable.
[03:31:41] And I was like, well, and we even said, no, jocals durable.
[03:31:44] I don't, and then, but then, I guess on in a way, yeah, because you're, you're, you
[03:31:48] bounce back from some pretty solid.
[03:31:50] Pretty solid.
[03:31:51] You know, how many new surgeries you had?
[03:31:53] One knee surgery, but if you need injuries, plus my loose knees, I know.
[03:31:57] I know.
[03:31:58] I know.
[03:31:59] They're loose for real.
[03:32:01] Anyway, so they pop out all the time.
[03:32:03] That means what I'm saying, you know, and they'll get more and more squats.
[03:32:06] I'd decide to do the process.
[03:32:08] And how's this?
[03:32:09] I do do squats.
[03:32:10] And actually now, I go deep like all the way down like you.
[03:32:14] Yeah.
[03:32:15] Oh, yeah, that's the reason.
[03:32:16] And how's they feeling tighter?
[03:32:17] No, no.
[03:32:18] Great.
[03:32:19] I mean, same.
[03:32:20] No, they still pop out in jiu-jitsu.
[03:32:21] Like when I do better, like, anyways, it doesn't matter.
[03:32:22] The loose, clinically, the doctor, orthopedic surgeon told me that.
[03:32:27] Anyway, so anyway, I don't feel like that.
[03:32:30] I don't feel like that.
[03:32:32] Anyway, given the circumstances, yeah, I guess I am pretty durable.
[03:32:37] But anyway, the point is we're talking about this stuff.
[03:32:39] And then, like, I'm like saying, like, oh, yeah, plus, I don't take time out of it.
[03:32:43] And then I'm naturally going into plus to take during more fair, or everyday, like, religiously,
[03:32:48] you know, so it's basically the point was to say you got to actively be durable, you know,
[03:32:54] kind of thing.
[03:32:55] Oh, yeah.
[03:32:56] But they're not like purely genetic apparently, right?
[03:32:58] Increase your durability.
[03:33:00] Also, we got other stuff.
[03:33:02] We got discipline go in a can, which is just awesome.
[03:33:07] It's awesome.
[03:33:08] No sugar.
[03:33:10] It tastes delicious.
[03:33:12] It has some caffeine in it.
[03:33:15] It has some, it's got some other things in it.
[03:33:17] But it's got a little kick that goes with it.
[03:33:20] Same with the discipline powder, which is what I drink pretty much all the time.
[03:33:23] It's almost, it doesn't have too much caffeine in the discipline powder.
[03:33:27] It's got like 15 milligrams, a scoop, which is not crazy at all.
[03:33:31] It's a micro dose, even if you have two scoops.
[03:33:35] What's that?
[03:33:36] 30 million, you know, 45 million grams for three scoops.
[03:33:37] It's not that big of a deal.
[03:33:39] But taste delicious has some other ingredients that give you a little.
[03:33:44] Do you?
[03:33:48] Protein, the form of the dessert.
[03:33:51] For adults and kids, even though it's like sure the kids are going to drink the regular
[03:33:57] milk and let's face it.
[03:33:59] The adults are going to drink the word.
[03:34:01] Kid mobs.
[03:34:02] So much where your kid mock, I'm surprised I haven't turned gone down in age.
[03:34:09] The less those are there too.
[03:34:12] And they taste insane.
[03:34:14] That's the thing.
[03:34:15] So that's that.
[03:34:17] Also, Jocquay T. And by the way, right now, this all these supplements that you might
[03:34:24] want to try are available at the vitamin shop nationwide.
[03:34:31] Everyone that's been going out and buying stuff there, it's pretty cool.
[03:34:33] Appreciate it.
[03:34:34] They're like, hey, everything's selling out.
[03:34:37] And we're like, yeah, it's getting more people in the game across the
[03:34:42] board.
[03:34:43] OriginMain.com.
[03:34:44] Get some.
[03:34:45] Thank you.
[03:34:46] Also, again, reminder, if you're going to get this book, you can't get this book on Amazon.
[03:34:51] Get it on Amazon.
[03:34:52] You have to go to Pilots Publishing.CL.UK.
[03:34:56] Go to thefacebook.com slash the memory indoors.
[03:35:02] Also, Jocquay T. And the story, it's called Jocquay T.
[03:35:04] And this is where you can get the gear.
[03:35:06] I don't really use the word gear that much, but I'm going to use it.
[03:35:09] The gear, t-shirt, trash guards, hoodies, hats, that kind of stuff to represent the
[03:35:14] pair.
[03:35:15] Gear, Discipline equals freedom, good.
[03:35:19] Take the high ground or the high ground.
[03:35:21] We'll take you.
[03:35:23] That's that, Jocquay.
[03:35:24] Unless you want to represent while you're on the path, that's where you do it.
[03:35:27] JocquayStore.com.
[03:35:28] Also, subscribe to this podcast if you haven't yet.
[03:35:32] Because if there's a possibility that you've listened to 500 hours and you've been like,
[03:35:37] well, I'm not quite sure yet.
[03:35:39] I'm asking, you just, you know, go for it.
[03:35:43] Just get crazy.
[03:35:44] Get crazy.
[03:35:45] And subscribe.
[03:35:48] I don't even know why someone would not subscribe.
[03:35:52] You know, just trying it out, I guess.
[03:35:54] You know, I can't even make it.
[03:35:55] Make sense.
[03:35:56] If you also want to leave a review, some people leave really good reviews.
[03:36:00] And by good reviews, I don't mean, hey, it's a great podcast.
[03:36:03] I probably like the insight that, no, I mean,
[03:36:07] reviews that are, let's just say there's, they've got layers.
[03:36:10] layers.
[03:36:11] Fun, colorful.
[03:36:12] Color, they make me laugh, they make me chuckle.
[03:36:14] I'm sure.
[03:36:15] Don't forget about the ground in vodka.
[03:36:17] So shines a good deed, you know, weary world.
[03:36:24] Yeah.
[03:36:25] Sorry, I don't know.
[03:36:27] I don't know what you have in scene, Willy Wonk and the chocolate factory lately.
[03:36:32] No, to be, I don't think of seeing no one in any of them.
[03:36:35] I saw part of the Johnny Depp one.
[03:36:37] No, I part of it.
[03:36:39] Fowl.
[03:36:40] Well, thank you.
[03:36:41] You got to watch the original one.
[03:36:42] It's awesome.
[03:36:43] It's a great movie.
[03:36:44] All right.
[03:36:45] Well, interesting.
[03:36:47] That's interesting.
[03:36:48] Jock, you heard it.
[03:36:49] Jocko.
[03:36:50] Watch that.
[03:36:51] We, Lee Wonkka and the chocolate factory isn't awesome.
[03:36:53] Yes, it is an awesome movie.
[03:36:55] Okay.
[03:36:56] Oh, go watch it.
[03:36:58] Amen.
[03:36:59] Maybe I'll look into it.
[03:37:00] Maybe he'll watch a report back.
[03:37:02] Less grounded podcast.
[03:37:04] I mean, I'm over here throwing out quotes from the movie, right?
[03:37:07] We're doing Shakespeare.
[03:37:08] We're doing, we're doing the memory endurance, but we're also throwing out some Willy
[03:37:12] Wonkka.
[03:37:13] Charlie and the chocolate factory.
[03:37:15] Sure.
[03:37:16] All right.
[03:37:17] Well, there you go.
[03:37:18] It will make sense.
[03:37:19] Anyway, like I'll say, I'm grounded podcast as a podcast about life.
[03:37:23] Jiu-Jitsu.
[03:37:24] Life.
[03:37:25] Life.
[03:37:26] Jiu-Jitsu is infused into life.
[03:37:29] Or is life infused into Jiu-Jitsu?
[03:37:31] Both.
[03:37:32] More important, I think life is reflective of Jiu-Jitsu and Jiu-Jitsu is reflective of life.
[03:37:37] So if you can learn from one, you will learn about both, which is important.
[03:37:42] It's true.
[03:37:43] Not quite as often as chocolate podcasts, but it's out there.
[03:37:46] So, which is weird, because it's like really hard to make this podcast.
[03:37:49] It's really easy to make a grounded one.
[03:37:51] But you know what we do?
[03:37:52] We do the hard things.
[03:37:53] Yes.
[03:37:54] That's what we focus on.
[03:37:55] Prioritize.
[03:37:56] Prioritize.
[03:37:57] And what is the second part?
[03:37:59] In the way.
[03:38:00] In the way.
[03:38:01] You know what's just got a knife in the drum, bro?
[03:38:02] Oh, so warrior kid podcast, which is a good one for the young trooper, warrior
[03:38:09] kids.
[03:38:10] And don't be shy if you're a parent to listen, because you're in a learn.
[03:38:14] I wish I would have that podcast as a parent when my kids were young.
[03:38:17] Actually, in a way, it's a parent podcast.
[03:38:19] It is.
[03:38:20] It is.
[03:38:21] It is.
[03:38:22] Yeah, because you know, like, when you hear of certain people's childhoods, for whatever.
[03:38:28] Like, certain like people who are like successful in XYZ, whether it be athletes, whatever,
[03:38:32] right?
[03:38:33] And you learn about their childhood.
[03:38:34] You could probably learn some solid stuff like, oh, I just just had one model.
[03:38:38] Yeah.
[03:38:39] Let me try to, you know, start incorporating it.
[03:38:40] Yeah.
[03:38:41] Yeah.
[03:38:42] So let's do the work.
[03:38:43] If I can say it's all in there.
[03:38:44] Yep.
[03:38:45] Speaking of warrior kids, don't forget about the warrior kid soap at IrishOxoranch.com.
[03:38:51] And actually right now live.
[03:38:53] Live is a new.
[03:38:57] Is it model?
[03:38:58] What's it called?
[03:38:59] A new model.
[03:39:00] It's not flavor because you don't eat it.
[03:39:02] It's a new.
[03:39:03] It's a new.
[03:39:04] I didn't even know.
[03:39:07] No, it's a new.
[03:39:08] Come on.
[03:39:09] I'm thinking of regular soap.
[03:39:10] So, you know, like, I don't know what do they say.
[03:39:12] It's a new version.
[03:39:13] Right.
[03:39:14] We have a new model, a new version of soap.
[03:39:18] You have actually have to check it out because it's so legit.
[03:39:22] It's called, well, what it does.
[03:39:24] Let me tell you how much it does is it's got some.
[03:39:27] Anti-microbial.
[03:39:28] Anti-microbial.
[03:39:29] I think it does.
[03:39:31] It's got some anti-fungal natural elements to it.
[03:39:38] One of those elements is like it's got like tea tree oil.
[03:39:41] It's got activated charcoal.
[03:39:44] And what's cool.
[03:39:45] So, this is what's cool.
[03:39:46] So, first of all, the soap is called killer soap.
[03:39:50] That's the name of the soap.
[03:39:51] But what, it couldn't be any more perfect because it is because of the charcoal.
[03:39:57] It's black.
[03:39:58] So, it's black.
[03:40:00] And it's awesome.
[03:40:02] So, get yourself some killer soap from IrishRokes Ranch.com.
[03:40:05] And by the way, this is a kid that's making it.
[03:40:08] A kid that started a company and pitched me.
[03:40:11] You know what stuff I get pitched?
[03:40:13] I get pitched up five times a day.
[03:40:15] I get pitched something, this, that, and the other.
[03:40:17] This kid pitched me.
[03:40:18] But, you know, he pitched me.
[03:40:19] He's like, hey, I'm already rolling.
[03:40:21] Yeah.
[03:40:22] You know, I'm already rolling.
[03:40:23] I'm already making soap.
[03:40:25] By the way, I'm 10.
[03:40:26] I've got a soap production line.
[03:40:29] And I've got vertical integration.
[03:40:31] I mean, he was getting after it.
[03:40:33] Yeah.
[03:40:34] So, he hasn't even pitched me.
[03:40:36] Pitched me.
[03:40:38] And of course, he didn't even pitch me by, could you, I know, he was like, I want you to know
[03:40:42] what I'm doing.
[03:40:43] There are openings if you would like to get a piece.
[03:40:46] Yeah.
[03:40:47] I'm like, you know, and you invest in the people, right?
[03:40:50] I'm looking at a kid that's 10 years old that's sending a business plan, that's sending
[03:40:54] samples.
[03:40:55] What do you like?
[03:40:56] So, anyways, we went deep to cover the grappling and just the luck.
[03:41:01] Look, there's nasty things in the world.
[03:41:04] And if you want to, you can get some killer soap, and that will help you as a person
[03:41:10] inside and out.
[03:41:13] Just stay clean.
[03:41:15] Oh, yeah.
[03:41:16] Yeah.
[03:41:17] Good logo too.
[03:41:18] We just make everyone suffer through our own little inside jokes.
[03:41:21] There goes the good one.
[03:41:22] Please stop.
[03:41:23] It's true.
[03:41:24] It's all true.
[03:41:25] I can't even be mad.
[03:41:26] So, yes, Irish Oaks Ranch.com.
[03:41:29] That's where you get it.
[03:41:31] And as Joc was saying, hey, stay clean, man.
[03:41:33] Right.
[03:41:34] Anyway, YouTube channel as well.
[03:41:35] Joc podcast does have a YouTube channel.
[03:41:38] So, you can get the video version and also excerpts and stuff like that.
[03:41:41] Some enhanced videos.
[03:41:43] Very English levels of acceptance and very, that was of enhancement.
[03:41:47] Very enhanced.
[03:41:48] For a life from people.
[03:41:51] So, anyway, yeah.
[03:41:52] So, YouTube channel subscribe to that if you want.
[03:41:55] And smash the like button.
[03:41:58] I said it.
[03:41:59] I said it.
[03:42:00] You can you can you.
[03:42:01] It is.
[03:42:02] It is.
[03:42:03] Maybe.
[03:42:04] How many times was that funny?
[03:42:05] I don't know, but it wasn't more than 29.
[03:42:07] It's only funny.
[03:42:10] It's only funny.
[03:42:11] You say it because it's so hard.
[03:42:12] I don't know.
[03:42:13] I can't even say it anymore.
[03:42:14] Yeah.
[03:42:15] Because it's worn out, bro.
[03:42:17] So just note, no more.
[03:42:18] No stop.
[03:42:19] No, it is.
[03:42:22] Also, don't forget about psychological warfare.
[03:42:25] Little psychological hitter.
[03:42:29] And I actually had the person point out to me.
[03:42:32] Hey, that was me.
[03:42:34] Now, so that's one.
[03:42:35] I also had the person point out to me that there was a name for the type of shooting that
[03:42:39] we talked about, which is where you're shooting at where things are.
[03:42:41] You think things might be.
[03:42:42] It's called Drake shooting.
[03:42:44] And the dude is like a he's a guy that's on Twitter who always brings up good
[03:42:49] points.
[03:42:50] He does his own personal research on stuff.
[03:42:52] But he's got a weird handle that I can't remember what it is ever.
[03:42:57] I recognize it in the heartbeat.
[03:42:59] I know I can tell you all the kind of things.
[03:43:02] So anyways, I apologize for not telling you that Drake shooting appreciate the info.
[03:43:05] He's always got a good info.
[03:43:07] But the psychological hitter with someone that's realized that that's what psychological
[03:43:10] warfare is.
[03:43:11] It's not some broad course on how to have more discipline in your life.
[03:43:17] It's just a little bit of a hitter in case you need it.
[03:43:21] So the psychological warfare, and if you need a visual hitter, you can go to flipsidecampus.com
[03:43:28] to go to my or make it a bunch of really cool.
[03:43:32] A bunch of really cool graphic images that you can hang up on your wall.
[03:43:36] So you stay on the path no matter what.
[03:43:38] Books.
[03:43:39] Hey, look for this book right here.
[03:43:40] The memory indoors.
[03:43:41] Awesome book.
[03:43:42] An honor to be able to read it.
[03:43:44] Thank you to Rick or Rich who sent it to me.
[03:43:47] And yes, we will keep up the work that we're doing here.
[03:43:51] If you want to get this book, go to pilotspublishing.co.uk or go to facebook.com.
[03:43:57] The memory indoors.
[03:43:59] And if you also be helping out the regiment, the parachute regiment, charity.
[03:44:05] On top of that, leadership strategy and tactics, everyone that's got it.
[03:44:08] Thank you.
[03:44:09] You're probably going to get copies of those for the people that you know, recommended.
[03:44:12] Let's get your team on board.
[03:44:14] I appreciate it.
[03:44:15] Or your kid one, two and three, probably the best kids books that you can get right
[03:44:23] now in my opinion.
[03:44:24] I'm biased.
[03:44:26] But I'm only biased because I read them.
[03:44:29] And I think, man, the lessons in these books.
[03:44:33] I wish I knew them.
[03:44:35] I wish I knew them.
[03:44:36] So warrior kid books one, two and three, way the warrior kid marks mission.
[03:44:39] And where there's a will, Mikey in the dragons, if you got a little or kid.
[03:44:44] Want to learn one of the most important things that you can learn as a kid is how to overcome
[03:44:47] fear that book shows you how to overcome fear.
[03:44:50] Discounted groups freedom, field manual, get it so that you can read two pages.
[03:44:57] Read two pages.
[03:44:58] Okay, you know, let's say we made up a pill that you could take this pill and you would
[03:45:03] get a mind shift.
[03:45:05] Like a positive way.
[03:45:07] Like you would.
[03:45:08] If you took this pill, you would increase your discipline.
[03:45:11] And factually, okay, would that pill pill sell well?
[03:45:15] Would people want it?
[03:45:16] Yes.
[03:45:17] Okay.
[03:45:18] Read two pages of this book.
[03:45:19] You're discipline will increase.
[03:45:22] 16 to 18% by the way.
[03:45:24] Yeah.
[03:45:25] Increase in discipline.
[03:45:26] Well, read two pages.
[03:45:29] Well, in the defense of the pill people, pill advocates, the whole purpose of a pill is
[03:45:36] so you don't have to do any kind of work or read or do all this stuff.
[03:45:39] Okay, so okay.
[03:45:43] Two pages of this book is not an extended period of time.
[03:45:46] You're finishing this in less than four minutes.
[03:45:49] Oh, so right.
[03:45:50] So this book essentially is the pill of books.
[03:45:53] So you know, instead of like the encyclopedia set of books.
[03:45:58] Okay.
[03:45:59] We'll take it.
[03:46:00] It's a rough lose analogy.
[03:46:02] Not sure.
[03:46:03] Not 100% I'll think of something.
[03:46:05] Thank you through that one.
[03:46:06] And then of course, we got extreme ownership of the Nicodemy leadership.
[03:46:08] These are the foundational books about leadership that I wrote with my brother, Dave Babin.
[03:46:13] We got echelon front, which is a leadership consultancy.
[03:46:16] Look, if you have a business, if you have a team, if you have a company and you have
[03:46:20] problems, every single problem that you have is a leadership problem.
[03:46:24] I guarantee that every single problem that you have is a leadership problem.
[03:46:29] And what we do at echelon front is we solve problems through leadership.
[03:46:34] So go to echelonfront.com for details.
[03:46:37] We got EF online, which is leadership, interactive leadership training online, it's EF online.com.
[03:46:44] You can get the information.
[03:46:46] You can get the repetitions.
[03:46:48] You can get put in scenarios that will help you think through problems at EF online.
[03:46:54] We also do little live webinars where we answer questions.
[03:47:00] EF online.com.
[03:47:01] We got the mustard coming up in Dallas, Texas, Orlando, Florida and Phoenix, Arizona.
[03:47:12] Every event that we've done has sold out.
[03:47:15] If you want to come, go to extremownership.com right now and register leadership 7R.
[03:47:21] That's what we do there.
[03:47:22] And of course, we've got EF Overwatch and EF Legion placement for military people that
[03:47:29] understand extremownership.
[03:47:32] Then understand the dichotomy of leadership.
[03:47:34] EF Overwatch is for executive leadership inside companies.
[03:47:36] EF Legion front line troops and front line leaders.
[03:47:40] Go to EF Overwatch.com or EF Legion to get involved in that from either side, whether
[03:47:46] you're a vet.
[03:47:47] That wants to get into a civilian job or either civilian company that needs veterans to help
[03:47:52] you lead and win.
[03:47:53] Go to those websites and get that figured out.
[03:47:56] EF, if you have not heard enough of my overly dramatic speech patterns and excessively long
[03:48:03] pauses.
[03:48:06] And you haven't heard enough of ECHOS ridiculous commentary about the heroic life of being
[03:48:13] a balancer.
[03:48:15] Then we are available on the interwebs on Twitter, on Instagram, and on the old Fission
[03:48:22] Blah, echo is that.
[03:48:29] ECHOS and I am at Jock on the link in.
[03:48:31] Thank you all for listening to the podcast and for giving this podcast to your support.
[03:48:36] Thanks for spreading the word.
[03:48:38] Thanks for telling your friends.
[03:48:39] Thanks for getting some deaf core gear or some origin gear, all of which allows us to
[03:48:44] do this podcast.
[03:48:46] And of course, thanks to Reg Curtis for your service and sacrifice to keep us free.
[03:48:58] And all the military members out there in uniform right now doing the same thing, keeping
[03:49:02] the enemy at bay, and also to our police and law enforcement and firefighters and paramedics
[03:49:07] and EMTs and dispatchers and correctional officers in Board of Patrol and Secret Service.
[03:49:11] And all first responders.
[03:49:15] Thank you for keeping us safe.
[03:49:17] Every single day here at home and everyone else out there, remember what Reg Curtis taught
[03:49:27] us to never give up even against overwhelming odds to never accept the feet to persevere
[03:49:37] and endure until the end.
[03:49:42] And then when you get tripped up or you get knocked down even then what you do is you do
[03:49:49] the best you can.
[03:49:55] Lesson learned.
[03:49:58] Thank you.
[03:49:59] Reg Curtis and we will be out there in your honor, getting after it.
[03:50:08] And until next time, the ZECO.
[03:50:12] And Jocco.
[03:50:14] Ouch.