Do Go On - 508 - The Real Great Escape

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

You might have seen the 1963 Steve McQueen classic, but this week we look at the real story behind The Great Escape. Tunnels, disguises and forgeries combine for the the most audacious escape attempt in history. And for the fun we are joined by the hilarious Dane Simpson!This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximately 09:10 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report).For all our important links: https://linktr.ee/dogoonpod Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Who Knew It with Matt Stewart: https://play.acast.com/s/who-knew-it-with-matt-stewart/Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasDo Go On acknowledges the traditional owners of the land we record on, the Wurundjeri people, in the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders, past and present. REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/nightlife/this-week-in-history-the-great-escape/10928200 https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/greatescape/three.htmlhttps://www.rafbf.org/great-escape/about-the-great-escapehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_Luft_III https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20250320-the-true-story-of-the-great-escape https://rafa.org.uk/blog/2023/10/11/vaulting-horse-the-other-great-escape/ https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-collection/stories/roger-bushell-and-the-great-escape/ https://www.pegasusarchive.org/pow/roger_bushell.htm https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20250320-the-true-story-of-the-great-escape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnnie_Dodge#Stalag_Luft_III_(North_Compound) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oh hello there, Toodle Pip and all that. It's me, Matt Stewart, one of the hosts of this show, letting you know I'm hitting the road. I'm coming out on tour for a Bad Boy slash Who Knew It? Matt Stewart live show tour. Coming to Brisbane, Sydney, Newcastle, Adelaide, Hobart and then over to the UK including Edinburgh, Cambridge, Birmingham, Manchester and Swansea. This is coming up real quick, it's kicking off in a couple of weeks and cannot wait to get there. If you want to grab tickets please do at mattstewartcomedy.com. Some of these shows are close to selling out which is very exciting and I would love to see you there. This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform designed to help you stand out and succeed online. Maybe you're just starting out or perhaps you're scaling up your business.

Squarespace gives you everything you need to claim your domain, showcase your offerings with a professional website, grow your brand and get paid, yes, all in one place. Whoa. Hey, Dave. Yes. Squarespace gives you everything you need to offer services and get paid all in one place. That's what I said.

I'm like, is there an echo in here? From consultations to events and experiences, showcase your offerings with a customizable website designed to attract clients and grow your business. Get paid. Yes, we're saying it again. Paid on time with professional on-brand invoices and online payments.

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I love that. And if you love that too, you can head to squarespace.com Do go on for a free trial and to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain that's squarespace.com slash do go on Hello and welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dev Warnocky and as always, I'm here with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins. Hello! Hey Dave, so good to be here with you. Great to be here with you. And also with you.

And with you. And this year... This year! This is our annual episode. I don't know if you've realized what you've dedicated yourself to, but we're doing 52 episodes. Oh great, I'm gonna be here all year now. This year, joining us from the Mad Yarns podcast, it's our mate Dane Simpson.

Yay! Woo! Happy New Year! Woo! I don't know why I said that. We've done this every week for nearly 10 years. This year? Yeah, it's an annual podcast.

Anyway, Day- You know what? It's the start of the financial year. Exactly! I'm a really savvy financial kind of guy. I go with the clock. The financial clock. You're finally accepting you do look like an accountant.

That's why I hate him so much. Yes. Oh, that's not the only reason. I'm a multidimensional. He can hate me for many reasons. But, uh, Dane, how are you? Yeah, great. Great.

I'm at the top of my game right now. I don't have your glasses, so I'm already doing well. It's just kept on strays all over the shop. your glasses. So I'm already doing well. Mark, you said to Dane, basically Dave's going to tell us a story from history and we just sit here and annoy him. Dane's going, well, I can do that straight away. Insights got it. Well, regular listeners might know Dane from his episode of Dugong the Quiz Show. Yeah, that's right. Which came out last year.

We did an episode with you and Marcel where the topic was periodic table of the elements. Cause when I see you down, I thought, this guy knows science. This guy knows elements. And you proved yourself that night. Oh, absolutely. We did.

Yeah, we did. What a powerful team we were. VIP chunky bows. That's right. If you haven't seen it, I gave the both teams a bunch of uh letters that represent elements and I said who can spell the longest word using these letters and uh. And we did it. We used every letter. We used every letter. VIP chunky bows.

That's what you do. Absolutely. That's what the VIP chunky boys do. Once they're finished. That's what I do after every show I perform. I do a VIP chunky band. That's just for the people who've paid extra. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone has to leave except for the people who have paid extra. You're checking wristbands. You've also done a few episodes of Who Knew It with Matt Stewart, My Pardon Day's Book Cheat.

But you've got now you're venturing and I feel a bit, I feel like you should have probably checked in with us first, but you've started your own podcast without even asking us. This is the widest I'll ever feel. So the pod is you and your mate, Isaac. Yeah. And we just yarn, it's just, it's called Matt Yarns. We just yarn. We just tell, tell us a story. We encourage people to spin a yarn with us. It's fun. It's silly. Um, but

yeah, it's, it's very, I don't know. It's in its early stages. We haven't got a very few out by the time this comes out. Probably two episodes would have been out by then. So yeah, it's, we, we will work it out. So people will be able to binge it pretty easily. Yeah. At this point. Yeah. Two acts Yeah, you listen to both episodes. You do that in a day. That's great, because when people see it, some people love seeing that we've got 500

and other people see it and go, well, I can't catch up with that. Yeah, yeah. Totally. That's like that all the time. It's flown. Same with like TV series. If there's like 20 seasons, I'm like, I'm not starting. I can't do that.

What? So 500. Crazy. Well done. Thanks so much. How long do the episodes go full? Oh as you're about to find out between about an hour and a half and two hours. Okay. Yeah, and so that's a thousand hours at least Yeah, and then we have two hundred and something bonus episode mini reports as well. They're about an hour as well. Yeah Done a hundred book cheats. I've done 150 who knew it.

So basically you could train an AI to say whatever you want based on our voices. So you've got like three and a half thousand hours that you've put in to have two listeners. Yeah. And we love them. We always said we'd stop doing the podcast when more people are listening than we're doing it. So there's three of us, four of us say, so we need five listeners and we- That's all we've done. That's yet to happen. Yet to happen.

We just, one episode, that's all it will take. It's crazy the amount of Nazis that listen to this too. They have said every word. When he said every word, he said every word. He said, yeah. He said every word. Every word. For the AI.

It's okay if it's for the AI. Yeah, Jess and I really didn't enjoy some of those words you said. If you want me to be your GPS voice, that's available. Ooh. I don't think those words are not required on GPS tape. They're making you streets all the time. What are you, one of those? Well, it's funny that you mentioned Nazis.

Oh dear. Okay. Because we're going back in time. It's not a great time this week, but we always start with a question to get us onto topic because I've written the report, Dane, Matt and Jess, they don't know what it's going to be. You don't know what it's going to be about. So how does the show work then?

And we take it in turns to report on the topic. And that's what I've done this week. I've gone away. Our Patreon supporters, I put up three topics and they voted. So they voted for the Nazi story, not me. Of course they did. And um. You still put it up to them. Yeah.

Anyway. I went away, done the research and now I'm going to tell you all about something from history. Do you need to do research on this one? I also think that the topics were do you want to hear dog poop or the mould in my fridge or Nazis? Hey that didn't sound so bad. Now we're going to start with a question That question is, what 1963 war movie starring Steve McQueen is based on?

The Great Escape. On a true story, it is The Great Escape. Oh. Today we are talking about The Real Great Escape. Oh, sick. Nice. So we're focusing on what I would call the good guys. Tom, Dick and Harry. Yes. Yeah.

So you're a fan. Let's go around there. Have you seen the movie? Yes. I haven't. A long time ago. Can I double check when you say the good guys? Who are you talking about? The guys are trying to escape. OK. Oh, OK. Because you just said that we're talking about Nazis today.

No, they obviously come up as the baddies. OK. Yeah. Just so that everyone's on the same page. Yeah. Yeah. Also, Dave everyone's on the same page. Also, Dave, why is your heart going out to all of us? So Jess hasn't seen the movie? No. Fantastic.

I haven't seen it in ages. Yeah, I think I watched it growing up maybe with my dad. I think I saw it at the cinema when it came out. You saw it in the 60s? Yeah. Yeah, I watched it when I was a kid. I used to be on Sunday afternoons or we're about the same age, yeah, old as the wind.

And I reckon it used to be repeated daytime weekends. Absolutely. Yeah, it was. Yeah, I reckon I watched it on telly during like midday movies. Yeah, it must be very cheap, obviously, to put it out even back then. But now it's the first time I've ever found a movie on YouTube with ads. Oh. Usually someone's either pirated it and put it up or you can rent it from YouTube. But they were like, yeah, you can watch it.

We'll chuck a couple of ads in there. Oh, then not ads from the TV that it was taped off. No, that'd be amazing. Mm, McCain's Pizza. Yeah. Oh, McCain's, you've done it again. What does burrito mean? Do you remember that ad campaign where they old El Paso had to

do a campaign asking Vox Pop asking Australians, what do you think burrito means? That's funny. Yeah. I'm a burrito brothers. Oh, they're a hit band back in the 60s. That was one of the guys answers. I think they were actors. Do you remember when they were promoting lamb? Yeah. Oh yeah. Roast lamb in particular. And then they're like, nah, like they're giving up a date with Tom Cruise.

Oh, no, I don't remember that. They're like, oh, you've just won a date with Tom Cruise. Nah, mum's got lamb roast, Tom. Oh, yes. No, I do remember that. Yeah. No, that's the best. So they chose the lamb over Tom Cruise.

They chose the roast lamb. That's good. Tom Cruise is sitting there going, what the fuck? I don't even reckon he was consulted or paid or anything. He knew nothing about it. And Tom Cruise let me ask you this, what does burrito mean to you? So we're talking about the real great escape. So the movie is obviously based on this real event.

They got a bunch of it right. Also a lot of it's been Hollywood fired, which I'll sort of reference a couple of times. But this topic, as in the actual escape, was being suggested by a bunch of people. Thank you to Nick Slater from Cambridge, Adam Darbyshire from Quebec, Canada, Robin Leibundgut, pardon me, from Le Seine in Switzerland, Tim Randall from Brisbane and Queensland,

and Jonathan Guppy from Bristol in the UK. Guppy. So good. Very forgetful. It's got like a 10 second memory. Guppy, I didn't get it. I was like, Tim Randall?

Yeah, so thanks again to the people that voted for this topic. Now our story takes place at Stalag Luft III, a German prisoner of war camp run by the Luft Waffe. That's the German Air Force during the Second World War where they held captured Western Allied Air Force personnel. At the time the German military followed a practice whereby each branch of the military was responsible for the POWs of equivalent branches. So Air Force looked up, looked after Air Force.

Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, I guess maybe you know more about them. You can relate more to them. Yeah. As, yeah. Yeah. No other armies have done this though. Like, like as in no other countries during wartime have taken on only their specific regiment.

Yeah, that's so weird. Yeah. But these are the only people that have ever done this. Is that you telling us the fact? I'm assuming. Okay. I don't know. I'm not.

It's super interesting. I hadn't heard of it before this either. But I'm not as big of a fan of war as Davis. Oh, so. Yeah, I'm a man of my mid-60s. All I watch is the history show. So, yeah, I'm a man in my mid sixties. All I watch is the history show.

The camp was established in March 1942 near the town of Sagan, Lower Silesia in what was then Nazi Germany, but it's now part of Poland. It's 160 kilometres, a hundred miles south east of Berlin. And the site was selected because it's sandy soil made it difficult for POWs to escape by tunneling. Oh, I was going to say that might make it easy to dig, but harder for the tunnels to stay up. Yeah, that's why they collapsed pretty instantly. The BBC writes, Starlog Luft 3 was the Germans attempt at an escape proof camp.

Specifically for Air Force officers from the UK, Canada, Australia, Poland and other allied countries, it was built and run by the Luftwaffe as a secure place to hold people they believed were escape risks. What they had not done however was consider the ramifications of trapping so many escape experts all in one place. So funny. They're putting together their own ragtag team. They really have.

They're forced to ragtag team. Is one of them a gymnast? Every room on the camp had to have at least one gymnast. You got to split up the gymnasts. Or contortionists. Or they have one of them as well. Yeah, one of each. Yeah. We need to win this ice hockey tournament.

Let's get all the best ice hockey players and we'll put them alone together in their own team. The losers. Exactly. We'll segregate them from everyone else. players and we'll put them alone together in their own team. Yeah. The losers. Exactly. We'll segregate them from everyone else. Surely they won't be able to do the thing we're trying to stop them doing. Yeah. The camp was built in the middle of a pine forest with clearing all the way around and

was surrounded by several layers of fencing and guard towers. And because of the dirt and because of how many towers and fences they had, they're like, no one could ever get out of here. Yes. The hubris is what does ya. Yeah. It's almost like, yeah, you're taunting them. The unsinkable ship. Yeah, exactly what it feels like, wasn't it?

Right. We don't even need guards. Yeah, whatever. The guards can do like, I don't know, maybe like a 10 to four kind of shift and then. You know, show their faces. The guys could probably just, the prisoners can just look after themselves after that,

I reckon. Yeah, no one's ever escaped at night. That's fine. Should we go into the barracks and check? Nah, it's fine. I can't hear anything, so I'm assuming everything's fine. What are they, quiet diggers? The camp itself was divided into sections.

The North compound held British airmen, that is people of the British air force who actually came from across the world. So there's a bunch of Australian, Polish, New Zealand, I'll go through the nationalities later but a lot of them served or were seconded by the British air force. So that's why they're all locked up together. So there was Aussies in on this. Yeah. Did not know that.

Yeah, a bunch of Aussies. Yeah, they didn't make the movie. I thought there was an Aussie character. Was it? Yeah. There's someone who does a really bad accent. Yeah. I remember that. Yeah. Oh. An offensively bad accent. Yeah. It wasn't Steve McQueen himself, was it?

Yeah. Why not? Is that too right, Cobb? I'm going to jump on this moment. All right, Cobba Dubba. Erew, I'm off. Um, are we going to talk about the ball bouncing? I'm off. Are we going to talk about the ball bouncing? Oh, the iconic.

That's obviously so in the freezer. Yeah. It's great. I didn't come across whether that actually happens in real life. Oh, OK. Yeah. I thought you said you did a lot of research. Yeah. Well, I thought it went scene by scene. I think that makes me think it probably didn't.

Surely that's the most Google thing. Did the ball bounce you've seen actually happen? Did they really lock him up with a baseball mitt? Balls were not quite invented. I think you'll find that that style of ball was not actually invented until 1953. So that's where our story takes place in the North compound. The South compound was for American airmen.

Each compound consisted of 15 single-story huts that were 3 by 3.7 meters and slept 15 men in five triple deck bunks. In a 3 by 3 room, did you say? Yeah, 3 by 3.7 rooms. So like pretty standard sort of bedroom size, but they had 15 men in there. Yeah. That's pretty. I've said a few backpacker dorms.

Yeah. Like that. Blocks. Blocks. Just in general, stink. Yeah, probably stinks like Lynx Africa. Cool. An old spot.

Yeah. An old spot. On Friday night, something special. How you going there? Friday night, bring out the old spots. If you're hyper, bring out the old spice. Yeah, on Friday night. Something special. You go out. Bring out the old spice. If you're hoping to maybe bring a lady home. Yeah, they'd absolutely get the old spice on.

Thank you. Put a tie on the knob. Fourteen men have to stand outside. Hurry up! Where did you meet a woman? We're in prison. Eventually the camp grew to approximately 24 hectares or 60 acres in size and housed about two and a half thousand RAF officers.

It's the Air Force. About seven and a half thousand US Army Air Force officers and 900 officers from other Allied Air Forces for a total of nearly 11,000 inmates. So it was huge. Wow. Wow. Wow. A lot of escape artists. 11,000 escape artists. Yeah. It's like they're having like an expo, you know, like an industry convention. Yeah, it's a conference. That's why they've all set up stalls. What like got them to that? What gives

them that clarification of an escape artist? You know, like did they get him in a headlock once and he's like pulled out of it slippery he's just oiled up his head what point when you get 11,000 escape guys together at what point do they just sort of start standing on each other's shoulders climb over the fence cop I can't stop 11,000 according to Wiki now, the prison camp had a number of design features that made escape extremely difficult. The digging of escape tunnels in particular is made difficult by several factors. The barracks housing the prisoners were raised 60 centimeters or 24 inches off the ground

to make it easier for guards to detect tunneling. So kind of on stilts. There's a gap between the floor and the ground, So you can't just start digging under your bed. Right. You can't let alone three holes. That would be insane. That would be crazy. No one would ever do that.

You could. Wait, are they fucking their beds? Yes. And 14 men outside waiting. Go on, you're done in there? How did you pick up? Well, just, you know, got some scissors. Bit of imagination.

Bit of imagination. I like to think that there's 15 men out the front and someone forgot to take the sock off their mouth. They're all waiting for no one. They're all just waiting for no one. One, two, three, four, oh for fuck's sake. I've been out here for two hours, I was thinking, Jesus, taking a walk.

It's just done it quietly. It's showing off at this point, Jesus. Two hours, how odd, then. Nobody wants that. It's not fun for anyone. It's showing off at this point, Jesus. Two hours. Come on then. Nobody wants that. It's not fun for anyone. Certainly not the pillow. Yeah.

The camp had been constructed on land that had a very sandy subsoil. The surface soil was dark grey so it could be easily detected if anyone dumped the brighter yellow sand found underneath, above the ground. The loose collapsible sand meant the structural integrity of any tunnel would be very poor, like we're saying. And a third defense against tunneling was the placement of seismograph microphones around the perimeter of the camp, which were expected to detect any signs of digging. Oh, wow. So literally they've marked up the ground.

So they've really thought about digging. Yeah. I wonder, what if they thought about other ways of getting out? Hmm. Yeah. That'd be so if they just walk out the front gate. There's no fences. They're like, huh, OK.

You know what we should have bought? Locks. Yeah. Ah, shit. I've took the whole budget on these microphones. They're really good though. Top of the line. Oh, they're great stuff. The guy at Bunnings wouldn't stop going on about them.

Bunnings is where you get your marks, is it? Absolutely. Ground marks. Yeah, sorry your mics, is it? Absolutely. Ground mics? Yeah, sorry. You can't forget about ground mics. Come on, mate. You've been at this game 10 years. You should know your mics.

We've actually marked the ground up in here today. Let's go listen. Oh, is that someone? Is that Evan trying to dig out of the studio next to us? Oh, no. Someone's trying to dig in. Evan, you get back in here. Push a little daisy some make up cover.

I feel like that's what the ground would sing. That's what you did. Oh my god. The ground's singing to me. The ground's going, oh, worms. Get them out. There's worms under my skin. So gross.

I'm trying to think of a single Velvet Underground song. I could not think of a song. I don't know if you know, but I get plenty of roots. Come on, that's good stuff. The ground gets roots. Which in Australia means sex. I've also soiled myself. Oh, God.

Guys, I'm fire over here. That's incredible stuff. It's nice to have an actual comedian on the show, guys. Sounds like a wild... Someone's material is a little dirty. Thank you so much. That sounds like you would... it would be very interesting putting the tie on the knob and spending some time with you in the bedroom, roots, soiling yourself.

Bit of everything. That's it, actually. Oh, that's just the two. They're the big two. That's what the whole 30 seconds is filled with. In that order. So despite all of these precautions, there had been a few previous escape attempts, even at Stalag Luft 3. The most famous of which is known as the Wooden Horse Escape.

This escape involved Flight Lieutenant Eric Williams, who was a pilot whose sterling bomber was shot down over Germany. Lieutenant Williams and a few others created a vaulting horse, kind of like a crude gymnastic pommel horse. Okay, gymnastic. There we go. Over the top. Yep.

They forgot there was a bad idea to construct a trampoline on one side of the fence and then a trampoline on the other side of the fence next to a foam pit. I was assuming it was going to be Trojan, like a reverse Trojan. It is kind of Trojan like. So what it is, is like, it's made with wooden Red Cross crates. That's how they made this, this vaulting horse. And every day this vaulting horse went, that went all the way to the ground. See there's no, these days you see a pommel horse at the gym or whatever.

There's, you know, you can see in between the legs of it, but this thing, it's like a solid piece of wood and it was carried out of the recreation hut by four fellow prisoners while one or two escapers clung on inside. The vaulting horse was set down in the same spot near the perimeter fence every day. And whilst men jumped over it and made a bunch of noise, the two men hidden inside began excavating their tunnel using bowls as shovels and metal rods to poke through the surface of the ground to create air holes.

Great. Wow. That sounds like a nightmare. Where's the dirt going? Yeah. So another ingenious thing is at the end of each day, a wooden board was placed over the tunnel entrance and covered with surface soil, and the soil that dug out was placed inside the horse,

and then they'd carry that. So we would have weighed a ton because there's two adult men in there with a day's worth of soil. A day's worth of soil. And then they'd carry that. So we would have weighed a ton because there's two adult men in there with a Soil and then they'd carry that out empty it off and the next day when they where do they empty it off? Throughout this according to Royal Air Force Association. The excavator dirt was a sandy yellow color and contrasted with the brown top soil So it was hidden in many ingenious places including inside prisoners trousers That doesn't feel like a long term solution.

Well, these men would then walk around the compound, allowing the dirt to slowly trickle down their trouser legs and onto the ground. Short shanked redemption. Yes. They were usually followed by other prisoners nonchalantly treading the sand into the surrounding dirt to mask the trail. Great. This sounds like an all right prison. Got a lot of freedom in there. You think Nazi prison, that doesn't sound like a lot of fun. Great. This sounds like an all right prison. We've got a lot of freedom in there. Yeah. You think Nazi prison, that doesn't sound like a lot of fun. Yeah. Look at them.

They're not really living up to the name Nazis, are they? No. Sounds funny. These air Nazis are pretty soft, are they? It sounds pretty woke prison, if you ask me. These guys have got recreational equipment? Yeah. Come on. Wow. Are you guys feeling okay mentally? Yeah. Come on. Are you guys feeling okay mentally?

Yeah. Do you just want to get the horse out and maybe play on it? Do you want to play on the horse? They love it. They love the horse. If you're a god, you'd be like, these grown men are losing them. Every day they're like going, yay! Trying to make as much noise as they can as they jump over walls. Wee!

Woohoohoohoo! I love to cover the noise. Your idea of someone making noise is yay! Good one! Everyone let's sing along. You're not really selling it. I reckon they would have been better actors than that. Yeah, they were great actors.

Surely they sang songs. That would make, that would be the most, like, non-weirdest thing. If they're all just singing like Walt Ziegmatt-Hilder or something. Yeah. Push him little days and make him come. Probably. Probably. All together. Obviously they're singing Ween. Ween are a very sing-along-able band.

Everybody now. Ween little days and make him come. Everybody now. We had a great time at your party in Gamma. Everybody now. Do you know what's weird? It's my brain went to wiggles. Like they're just at a Nazi camp going, everybody clap. Everybody sing. La la la la la. Down to your partner.

And the Nazis are like, these Englishmen are losing their fucking mind. La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la These guys are so weird, they're going home that night going shhh shhh shhh Big red car, sugar sugar sugar D-O-R-O-D-H-Y So for three months Flight Lieutenant Eric along with Lieutenant or Lieutenant as they would say Michael Codner Williams and Flight Lieutenant Oliver Philpott Took it in turns to tunnel over 30 metres or 100 feet long enough to get out of the prison. Wow. That's so insane.

It's so far. And they're digging with bowls. But you also said that this is sand. Yeah. So it's not meant to be able to dig through it. So how did they? So because if you dig down metres quite deep, you get underneath the sand, but it's like meters worth.

And then they're building a frame. Like I'm picturing the movie. They've got like a little rail and a frame. Or is that all Hollywood nonsense? No, that's not Hollywood nonsense. That's true. But for this one, I don't believe that they had anything reinforcing the tile, anything holding up the roof. So it was a little bit dodgy, like it could collapse on them. Yeah. Basically at any time.

But let's find out what happened on the evening of October 29, 1943, Kodner, Williamson, Philpott made their escape. Williamson, Kodner were able to reach the port of Stettin, where they stowed away on a Danish ship and eventually returned to Britain. Philpott posing as a Norwegian. What? I thought this was going to be a big build up. This is a previous attempt. Yeah, this is the wooden horse.

Right. I'm like, what the heck? They did it. Yeah. Just like that. Is that the end of the episode? The end. Credits. No, the other guy, Phil Pott, posing as a Norwegian margarine manufacturer was able to. I love the... That's a great backstory.

Well, I make margarine. Yeah. I wouldn't question that. Yeah, I would. It's so insane. OK. I love the, that's a great backstory. Well, I make margarine. Yeah. I wouldn't question that. Oh yeah. It's so insane. I'm okay. I wouldn't know what. Unfortunately he talks to the one Nazi's like a big margarine expert. And he's like, oh I've got high cholesterol. That's really helped me. Thank you. Yeah. Meadowlay, who do you work for? Name three other brands. Yeah. Bet you can't. He was able to board a train to Danzig, now Gdansk, and from there Stodowan, a Swedish ship that headed for Stockholm from where he was repatriated to Britain. So all three men inside that wooden horse got home. Wow.

I flew from Darwin today to Melbourne. Not one person on that plane knows my occupation. I didn't need a backstory. Yeah, you did. I didn't need to go. I'm from Norwegian. I'm Norwegian and I sell butter. Everyone, everyone. yeah. I'm from Norwegian. I'm Norwegian and I sell butter. Everyone, everyone.

Yeah, the more you say it, the more sass you sound. Oh, nice to meet you, I sell margarine. Yeah, why don't you just shut up and sit on the boat? You really won't believe it's not butter, I swear. Let me just, I've got some samples here. They're like trying to give you butter with a bread roll, you're like going, have you got any margarine? I'm actually a margarine guy. I reckon he's whacked this in to have a little bit more of a story. They're like trying to give you a bite of the bread roll, you're like going, have you got any margarine? I'm actually a margarine guy. I reckon he's whacked this in to have a little bit more of a story. It sounds more interesting.

I make margarine. I love, I escaped from a Nazi jail isn't enough of a story. So the escape proof prison was in fact not escape proof. Wow. Great. But not everyone wanted to escape. You see, as Matt's kind of already guessed, life at the prison wasn't too bad, especially when compared to other prisons run by the Nazis.

Curried sausages. They're pretty good. Yeah. And chips. Some good cuisine. Yeah. I don't know if you'd want it every day. Sorry, Nazis.

Do you mind if we mix up the menu a little bit? Are you not happy with the sausage? Are you not happy with the sausage is the greatest sentence you've ever said in a German accent? And uh, und mein Wiener not bring ich happiness. I don't know what German video, I do know what German videos you watch. It's mostly the Swedish chef. Whatever was in it.

Whatever was a vegan sausage. Vaggan! We went to Berlin and Mark got a vegan sausage and the lady was so angry when she handed it out. Vagant! Vagant. We went to Berlin and Mark got a vegan sausage and the lady was so angry when she handed it out. Vagant! Vagant! We have a Vagant!

You're selling them! It's so funny. I was offensive to them to order them I think. Yeah, she's swearing at you. Yeah, that does not mean vegan. Why did you get this? Oh, you know, I went in Berlin. You gotta get a Vag Berlin. You get a bargain.

You get a bargain. Yeah, but yeah, I mean Berlin is very arty city. Very arty. Oh, and my Wiener not to make you happy. Isn't like all their breakfast foods like just meat? Yeah. Yeah, it's a breakfast, Vina. And for lunch, we have a...

Lunch, Vina. ...a lunch, Vina. And for dinner today, a dinner, Vina. Let's enjoy. The Nazi's in a prison and it's like, enjoy. They've got like an apron on, but please, enjoy. It would make me very sad if you're not happy with my veena. Stop!

You don't want my veena. He keeps making eye contact with me while he's saying it. I didn't even, I didn't even, I didn't even realise. I think that makes it worse. Just naturally. I didn't even realise. I just did that creepily. Just, sorry.

Um, and do you like some of my veena? I'd love some more. Thank you. Is this seconds? And yes, the sauerkraut on the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, secretly Australian. Oh no, no, no, I'm busted. I can't do my own accent anymore. So, let's talk about the prison conditions, because the Soviets never signed the Geneva Convention that laid out how prisoners should be treated, so they were often kept in appalling

conditions in Nazi prisons. The Allied prisoners, to start with, were treated with much more decency. And a lot of people speculate it's because they've signed the Geneva Convention, but they're also hoping that that means German prisoners on the other side are going to be treated a bit better. Right. But the Soviets and Germany, they're also they're treating each other terribly. Obviously, it was still a prison and no one wanted to be locked up and food was at times

scarce. So there's not sausages for everyone every day. day and they well, they didn't have a lot of money That's why the war was happening as well like the Germans. Oh, yeah, they were like we're not gonna spend it on these Yeah, of course. They're not gonna spend it on other people from other people. The people who they're fighting in the war Yeah, so I think they were like I think there even was like Conditions for how much food different like classes of citizen were getting and the, the POWs on this, on this side of the war were like a, like a low industrial worker or something. So it was, and I even read the calorie count, it's like not even quite enough to sustain. Oh, and you haven't finished your vina. You'll need your energy for the pommel horse tomorrow.

You know, you boys love the pommel horse. You, you actually, this is this is quite a big point, is that they're not getting enough calories to live, like just a normal everyday. They're lifting hundreds of kilos. They must be ripped. That wouldn't be an ounce of fat on them. Well, they'd be they'd be losing weight and rapidly. Yeah. And they'd be malnourished. And I think a lot of the time they were they were be losing weight. Rapidly. Yeah.

And they'd be malnourished. And I think a lot of the time they were kept going by Red Cross packages. Right. That were sent to the prison and they had a system where. They just sent them blood. Yeah. How did it go with this? Oh yeah, they didn't even mention they're vampires.

Yeah, they're calorie dense blood. But they had a system where if you got sent something you pulled it for everyone, right? So it's kind of like have you got enough for the whole class? Yeah, you know, put away the snacks. That's the system We've all been to camp Come on You say that to a POW comes back. Yeah, mate. We've all been to camp. I think we get it. Yeah You want to get you went to a camp?

camp. I think we get it. Yeah. You went to a camp. Year six. We went to Beechworth. OK. We rode horses. We went for a bush walk. It was great. OK. We went to Burrambla. You have to eat your Mars bar outside by yourself.

We get it. We get it. The menu is not up to scratch always. Yeah. You know, sometimes it's, you know, sausage. Yeah. Sometimes it's a bit unusual. Is that another kind of know, sausage. Yeah. Sometimes it's the international. Is that another kind of sausage? Yeah. So Wiki breaks down life at the prison, which there was a lot of extracurricular stuff that

they sort of distracted themselves with. They had a substantial library with schooling facilities available where many POWs studied for and took exams in subjects such as languages, engineering, or law. The exams were supplied by the Red Cross and supervised by academics such as master of King's College, who was a POW in Luft Three. So they happen to have like this very high up principle there. And he's like, I'll supervise the exams. The prisoners also build a theater

and put on high quality bi-weekly performances featuring all the current West End shows. That's so funny. So they got to practice acting before going out and having to pretend to be like Nazis, I guess. So when you're on the run, someone's like, yeah, my name is Macbeth. I'm a Scottish king. My wife just lost her mind.

I was born by Caesarea, but just letting you know. Okay. That's a weird thing to say. Oh yeah. Yeah, so the prisoners used the camp amplifier to broadcast news and music radio station named the station KRGY short for Kreigstfungadur, which means POWs in German. And if you say that correctly, that is. And also published two newspapers, The Circuit and The Kre crikey times, which were issued four times a week. You just, you just can't stop white men doing podcasts.

And any condition that someone has to listen to my voice. I've got something to say. But it's great that enough for two newspapers, four times a week. What are they reporting on? Yeah. I will say, Dane, now that you're one of us, you can't make that joke anymore. Welcome. Yeah.

Boo. Yeah, I do feel like I'm stepping into a world that I'm not ready for that jokingly. Like I want to, I want to still make jokes about it. I want my cake and eat it too. Yeah. Yeah. But you're, you're even doing a classic white man part of, we're just telling stories. We're just telling the arts. Oh, well.

We're just hanging out. We're just hanging out with a couple of mates and we're funny. I mean, you two are, but so I guess. I think the classic white fella is to tell me how to live my life Well, I'm not knowing how to live your life. Oh that reminds me. Um, yeah, I've got a few we'll do it off Bob, but I do have some I got some ways and it drop on you later Make your bed go to the gym Rise and grind speed on the three,? Then you got three days a day.

Three days every day. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Every day. It's these weird people that think that they've got extra like knowledge and you go, nah, cause you're weird. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So StarLogic 3 also had the best organized recreational program of any POW camp in Germany. What the hell? It sounds more like, it almost sounds like a boarding school. Yeah, there's a lot. Why are they escaping? They're very busy.

They're making the most of it. Yeah. Trying to distract themselves. Each compound had athletic fields and volleyball courts. The prisoners participated in basketball, softball, boxing, touch football, volleyball, table tennis and fencing with leagues organised for most of these. They gave them swords. Brilliant.

Yeah, wow, you wait till he tells you about the pistol shooting range. And they're doing pole vaulting. They're doing a key cutting course. There's a lot happening. Who voted on softball and not baseball? I wonder what's going on there. Maybe they only had those big balls. Because softball's got those big chunky balls.

Yeah, and the American and the guards are saying underarm only. Yeah, yeah. That's like, there's a lot of rules. This isn't the Americans either. The British side, yeah. No mention of cricket though. What about rounders? Remember rounders? Probably rounders of cricket though. Yeah, you did play cricket. What about rounders? Love a bit of rounders. Remember rounders?

You played rounders as a kid? Yeah. Yeah, mini bat. Yeah. That's like only for primary school. It's like a mix between cricket and... Yeah, I was pretty good at rounders. And when I found out, I couldn't go professional.

I was dead. You were good at rounders because the bat was small enough for your tiny hand. Yeah, because it looked like a full bat. Yeah. It was awesome. What about British Bulldog? Oh, sure. We used to play that on, on full back. Yeah, it was awesome. What about British Bulldog? Oh, we played that on on bitumen.

Yeah. Which looking back is crazy. That's silly. Yeah. Yeah. Same with that. So literally, what is it like? There's one kid on one side of a field or an open area, and then everyone lines up and you have to try and run through. Yeah. And it's like full tackle. Yeah. Tackle you to the ground.

So did it? I don't think any- And then they join you. I don't think anyone ever won because you just got smashed. You got smashed, but then they join you and then they run back and then the two of you now tackle. Yeah. And then there's four of you technically.

Well, whatever. Yeah. That's wild. Yeah. Yeah, I wasn't good at that one. That's okay. You can run under their legs. Yeah. I played a good at that one. You could run under their legs. I played a touch British ball time.

Don't touch me, please don't touch me. Barley, Barley! I'm Barley. Well that means everyone's gonna want to touch you. Very British chihuahua you play. Yeah. There was another insane game that people played where you would get like a high school table and then like the standard classroom one, you bring it outside and then everyone

on one side would put their knuckles like in a fist facing up and then someone else would get a 20 cent coin and you just had a shot at smashing into the other person's knuckles. Oh. Right. And it would just, and you'd just go and forth, sort of like an air hockey table. But you would just end up with the most cut open knuckles. Yeah. Cut open with dirty coins.

It was awesome. Really good for people. Yeah. Really good. We played wall ball. It was with a tiny little round rubber ball. And if you if you kicked it into the wall, I think you were allowed to pick it up and peg it at someone. That feels right. And if you picked up the ball, like if you touched it with your hand.

Wall ball. Yeah. I've never heard of wall ball. If you picked it up like mid, like if you touched it with your hand mid game, everyone was allowed to punch you in the arm. And so what people would do to get around the route would just pick it up and then just peg it at the closest person so that they're running away from them. And then run off.

It's like, um, like tut, like tipsies where you, there's a, um, like a safe safety. Yeah. That's the barley. I think the wall was the safe. So if you pick it up with your hand, threw it at someone and then go and touch the wall. No one can punch you in the arm after that. Isn't it so funny that these games made complete sense to us at the time? It sounds like gibberish now. Exactly. It sounds so bullshit now, but at the time, like, yes, OK, all of that

sounds right. And then I'm also thinking of international listeners listening to us going, what the fuck are they talking about? I imagine these feel very English to me for some reason. I mean, British Bulldog, obviously. Yeah. But something about you kick a ball against a wall and you get it in your piffit. That feels like I'm picturing like little Charlie Chaplains, you know, like little Owl Squire.

Like Dick Dickenzie and sort of ball games. We didn't have a lot, but we still had fun with what we had. A wall and a ball. Yeah. A wall and a ball. Yeah, well, we had a ball. You got ball ball. I'm just thinking the specific language we're using. Yeah, so if you caught the ball, you're a lot piffing at someone. Right, right.

You got the ball, you can peg it at them. OK. But like a British bulldog isn't necessarily British. That's a good point. In Australia. They don't just call it bulldog. We do that. Yeah, but we we've got the Mexican wave. That's not from Mexico. Is that true? Nor do the Mexicans know that that's what we call it. Is that true? And apparently in nut bush America, they don't do that dance. No, that's just us. The Chinese whispers that nobody else calls it Chinese whispers. Really?

No one. Especially not the Chinese. They call it telephone in America. In America? Yeah. I think they do in the UK as well maybe. I'm pretty sure Chinese whispers have been phased out here as well, but... I don't play games anymore, so I don't know. So, I don't know. What are the kids doing? Same with the Americans. Yeah.

So it's... You don't know. In Australia, we say these weird things and then you go to that country and you're like, ha ha ha, the Mexican wave. And they're like, no. Oh, I did assume that that was a Mexican tradition. No. So I don't think so. Why would they, what?

I think where it comes from, I think there was some kind of sport that had, um, Mexican people playing. Like we were playing Mexico at the time, maybe at an Olympics. And then the crowd did like a, like went around and then we just associated, Oh, that's that time that we played Mexico. Oh, that's the Mexican wave. I think that's where that comes from.

That's wild. That is wild. I could be just adding to a new. Yeah, I like it. I could, I'll Google it and we can talk about it later. Great. I just prefer that we we can talk about it later. Great. I just prefer that we've come up with our own. Well, if the story is not as fun as that, I won't tell them.

You'll shut the laptop. Yeah. That's how we'll know. So where are we up to, Dave? You're telling us all their recreational activities. Yeah, so they're doing a lot of activity. They're singing, they're dancing, they're putting on shows. They've got newspapers, radios, they've got great sporting equipment. So a bunch of the people don't really want to escape because it's also extremely risky to escape because once you get out of the prison, it's not like your home.

Yeah, you're in the middle of Germany. You've got to try and figure out how to get home. But many felt it was their duty to try and escape for the war. So of the 1200 men in this part of the prison, about 600 or half work towards what is now known as the Great Escape. So a lot of people were in on this plan. Great. And the plan for this whole endeavour starts with one man and his name is Roger Bushel, the mastermind of what would be known as one of the most audacious escape attempts in history.

Right. Great tea. And he's like, yeah, I'm imagining a big bushy mustache. I love that you want to do. Yeah. He loved a cuppa. He loved it. An English breakfast. Well, that English breakfast started as a South African breakfast in 1910.

Oh, apparently it's known as the wave in North America and outside of North America known as Mexican wave. Oh, I lied then. And it. But you're still. I'm waiting for the fun part because otherwise you're going to close the laptop. Well, but it goes, it's way older than I was thinking. No, it's not.

It goes back to 1979. I thought it said 1879. But on apparently the Mexican national team in 1984 played in Monterey and the wave got really big there. And then it became when they travelled around, they thought of that game and that's why it gets called the Mexican Wave. Yeah, so you were right. So you were right. It was just in Monterey, not in Australia. Right.

There we go. Dane, I loved your version of the story better. Because I read the headlines and I make up my own. Dave loves Australia being in a story. Yeah, which they are in this one. Yeah. So Roger Bushel, the mastermind of this whole thing, was born in South Africa in 1910. He went to school in England at the age of 13 and according to the UK National Archives,

initially destined to join his father in the mining industry. He applied to study engineering at university, but was not keen on following in his father's footsteps. This was in no small part because he was claustrophobic. Remarkable given the number of escapes he would go on making through tunnels as a prisoner of war. Wow. So it's a, of war. Wow. Mmm. So it's a, you know, an unlikely start for- So he didn't want to be a miner because of claustrophobia, but he ends up mining in a way. Like tunneling for a living.

Yes. In like way smaller tunnels than they would ever mine. Yes. This could collapse. Yes, it's way less safe. Way less structurally sound. What a way to get over your fears. Yeah.

You're like, oh, I guess I'm going to do this every day for years. Feels like, I understand escaping some of these prisons, but this one I reckon you'd probably. You're like, you could get sent, you get out and then you get sent to a shit, one of the shit ones. Yeah, you're in a good one. And you know, next weekend we get to put on the HMS Pinafore. I've been cast in a lead role.

Yeah, so please. Because I was wondering when those three people escaped. I'm like, geez, they've left a... Have they screwed over everyone they've left behind? But maybe everyone else is just like, we don't want to go. Or is it too dangerous? You spread it around too many people know. The blood is hard.

Yeah. Yeah. Usually it would be small groups that would actually go for the escape. Right. Threes, fours, that kind of stuff. The bloody missus won't let me play softball at home. This is awesome. This rules. I'm semi-pro here.

I know the food's not great here, but it's better than at home. The missus can't cook a sausage for shit. So he was going to be a minor, but then he was like, no, I am claustrophobic. So instead he studied law at Cambridge and whilst working as a lawyer in the 1930s, he developed an interest in flying and in 1932 joined the Royal Air Force auxiliary and reserve volunteers He was assigned to the 601 squadron known as the millionaires squadron Oh as it had been established by a group of wealthy young aviators who? Got to fly and practice in the really cool planes on the weekend because I would like sort of hire them out fun

And his dad's really research he's is he is wealthy doing it doing around and practice in the really cool planes on the weekend, because I would like sort of hire them out. Fun. And his dad's really rich, he is wealthy. Do you want to be a soldier in the war and fly a plane and go and shoot? Yeah. How much do I get paid? Nah, nah, nah, it's for volunteer basis. You're going to volunteer, come on, mate. Well, yeah, we'll give you exposure, it'll be great.

This could be where your big bro comes. And then they're like, we'll put you in the millionaire squadron. I'll be a millionaire. Oh no. No, no, not like that. Sort of. So the Pegasus Archive, which documents this time in military history, writes of his career as a lawyer, of which he proved to be very successful.

In 1931, Bushel defended a notorious London gangland boss on a charge of murder and succeeded in securing a not guilty verdict. Delighted with the conduct of his defense counsel, the man in question offered his hand to Bushell only to be told in no uncertain terms that although he was happy to do his duty and defend a blatant murderer, he would not shake his hand. Oh, he's the Kardashian of his time. Wait, a Kardashian wouldn't shake someone's hand? He got he got OJ off.

Robert Kardashian. Right. Oh, Kim's dad. Sorry. Gotcha. No, I'm with you now. Yeah, you're you're you're thinking of the wrong generation. When you said he got OJ off, I was also like, what? Oh, sorry. Oh, he watched the video as well. At the outbreak of war in 1939, he joined the Air Force full-time, went pro and proved himself to be a worthy leader.

The Pegasus Archive again describes him. Roger Bushel stood at five foot 10 and he was a heavily built individual. He possessed a charismatic personality and was warm and friendly by nature. But when the occasion called for it, his deep voice and piercing eyes could make him into an intimidating figure. Who's that in my job? Are we? What's your?

Friendly and warm and cutesy, but when in nature. Oh, I'm gonna get those boys going. Are we going to find out that Bushels wrote this? Because that's really positive so far. Bushels, how do I say, um, heavyset but like striking, handsome. Yeah, like an athlete. Women loved him. Yeah, really friendly bloke.

Everyone liked him, but yeah, he could lead. And his only weakness, probably caring too much. Yeah, like striking eyes though. It's funny you say lead because the next sentence for this description is Bushel was a natural Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. making tough decisions in an instant and so it is small wonder that when he went he went on to mastermind the largest and most extravagant escape of prisoner of war ever attempted.

So he was in the air force full-time and saw his first and sadly last action of the war in 1940 when he was shot down whilst on patrol over the French coast and was captured by the Germans and sent to Dulag Luft. Initially feared dead he wrote his family two weeks later and the letter survives. I've seen it. It opens with, my dear John, I don't know whether you have heard or not. Anyway, this will tell you that I am alive. And as you can see from the address, I am a prisoner of war. I was shot down as you know, but managed to get two of them first.

He really talks himself up. Yeah, he does. I love this. He does. And you know what? He didn't himself up. I love this. He does. And you know what? He didn't. Exactly. He never even saw the bastards. They just shot him down.

What the hell? Oh God, I'm going down. I'm going to reckon they shot him down. I reckon he ran out of fuel. He didn't check. He landed in the prison. Ah shit. I thought it was a runway.

Damn it. I've got a bit distracted, so I've looked up who did the Australian voice in the movie. And it was James Coburn, who's like, Oh yeah, very famous. But how's this for a, I'm just looking through his filmography. He voiced Luton Plunder in Captain Planet.

No. Oh. Oh. Wow. Really, they have some incredible people on that show. That's wild. What an over- he's over qualified for the job surely. Yeah. Academy Award nominee. Also great villain name. Great villain. Great villain. Great villain name. Loot and plunder. Is Henry J. Waternoose III from Monsters Inc. See another bad guy because he voiced him as well.

Yes, that's the boss. Right. James Copeland could do it all apart from Australian accent. Can you do an Australian accent? No. He got the job. Do you reckon they all walked around whistling the tune? The...

Whistling. That's who that comes from. That's such a... That's another earworm. Yeah, it is, isn't it? That's very wiggly. It is. Can I just say that that's been in my head all week. Who came up with this?

Is this like one of those famous tune people from movies? Who wrote? Yes, I actually did look up their name has escaped me now. The great escape. Um, just you moving that microphone down and it just automatically going straight back up. It's really funny. Yeah, it happens several times an episode. It's a real joy for me too. It's really hard to deal with. I really love it. Yeah, Elmer Bernstein, he also did

the Ten Commandments, the Magnificent Seven to Kill the Mockingbird, The Great Escape, of course. Meatballs. Wow. Cape Fear. Ghostbusters. Also, I love this one. Three Amigos.

I didn't know this, but the man with the golden arm. Oh, that's- so the golden gun is playing off that, was it? Maybe it is. Maybe that's- is that a joke name? Wow. Anyway, so he's- he's responsible for the soundtrack. The old True Grit, the 1969 one. Oh, the original one. It really puts Iron Fist to shame, doesn't it? Hmm.

The old Twilight from 1998? So we've gone off track here. That's it. Ah Dave, do go on. So Roger Bushell in charge of the Great Escape, he was a POW from pretty early in the war, like I said, shot down in 1940. That's Dave. Day one.

They don't know that there is years of this shit left. They don't know that there is years of this shit left. They don't know that. Someone actually said that about the prison though, like, it probably sounds like a more fun prison than it was, because the worst thing was when you're in there, you don't know if ever you're going to get out. Yeah. Like, your team's going to win. Like, even if it was like, hey, you're going to get out in four years, you'd be like, count down to the four year mark. But you could be there for the rest of your life.

Yeah. And if the Nazis win, they don't really care anymore about treating you well. Because to make sure the prisoner Nazis have been treated well, you just get. So there was that. I think the sausage is going to get a lot worse. Yes. I think you might be one of the ingredients. Do you reckon Adolf Witten visited?

Did he drop by? I don't know. I don't think he would have been happy with what he saw. I don't think he would have been happy. What is all this happiness? What is going on here? I know. Do you know what?

If he's ever going to put his heart up and it's going to be appreciated by anyone, he would be at this camp. Yes! What do we think of my new landscape? ever gonna put his art up and it's gonna be appreciated by anyone. It would be at this camp. What do we think of my new landscape? I think I captured the pine trees quite magnificently. If you see my shadow work. Mmm. The detail.

Mmm. Mmm. What do we think of this? And everyone just going, what do we just going, nodding like, yeah. Okay. You can keep the pommel horse. Mon, you can keep the pommel horse if you like my paintings. Do you like my paintings?

No one's enjoying, what I'm loving the most is how much you're having fun. It's fun to tear talk in this action. I don't know. It's flopping around a lot. But um. And then you remember Hitler. Hitler's who I'm being. Not a good guy.

Oh, this is a controversial take. Real prick. I hope I capture that. That's my process, my background is a bit of a prick, insecure. Yeah. I can't help but feel like you've done a Hitler impression a lot before.

Not so much. But I am... Here's a man I find to be despicable. Anytime I feel like you're gonna say, my wife. Yeah, it's close. Oh, um, oh no. How do you say?

My cousin. Yash, yash, yash. Oh no. How do you say? My cousin. That's good. My niche. Was it his? Who was Eva Braun to Hitler apart from wife? Was like some sort of relative, wasn't she? I thought it was cousin. I don't think so.

He definitely had a lover earlier on that was family member. I always thought she was cousin, but it must be. I don't think so. He definitely had a lover earlier on that was family, I remember. Yeah. I always thought she was niche. We are an hour in and Dave is doing background on the story. That's right. We haven't started the Great Escape yet. So, but I've got to tell you, Roger Bushell, he's in charge of everything.

He was the PRW from early on because he was shot down. It became obvious early on that he wanted to do one thing and one thing only and that is escape. Cool. Great. earlier on that he wanted to do one thing and one thing only and that is escape. Cool. Right. Lieutenant Commander James Buckley of the fleet air arm had established the escape committee at Dualag Luft, which is so great that they've got an organizational structure for these things. They vote on it. Yeah, yes. I think they did stuff. There was like secretaries and stuff.

They've registered their club with the prison. They didn't even find the holes. they just found the secretary's notes. All the notes, because they booked out the gym every Monday afternoon. What are they doing in there? Microphones were picking up the ground. Really just walk in there and they say, all right guys, let's dig tonight. So following James Buckley, who's in charge of the escape committee's first meeting with Roger Bushall, he quickly recognized this man's potential and appointed him as his deputy.

Again from the National Archive, his first escape, this is Roger Bushell, occurred in June 1941. He made it to within a few hundred yards, few hundred meters of the Swiss border and freedom before being stopped by German guards. He was like literally crossing a checkpoint confidently because he speaks German. He stopped the German guards. He was like literally crossing a checkpoint confidently, because he speaks German, he stopped the games up. He later, so annoyed, he realized that if he'd crossed 200 meters either side at another checkpoint,

he would have just walked right through. No one was even there. So he was that close to getting out. Once recaptured, he was soon sent to Oflag 6B, only to escape from there with fellow officer, I love this name, a Czech pilot named Jaroslav Zafuk. Oh, yes. We love Zafuk.

Big fan. They just, they can escape like it will, by the sound of it. Yeah. Because each time they got to re-plan it. New prison, new place. You got to work out all how it works. Recon? The scheme, yeah.

Well, at least that commute's pretty good to you. You know, it's not like some bank robbers, they got to get up in the morning, schlep into the bloody... Yeah. On the train. Scope out of the place. It's also funny that they... No, well, they escaped.

So take them back to that inescapable prison. Yeah. Are you still believing this? They couldn't do it twice. Yeah. No, no, no, don't worry, we'll put a lock on that one now. First of all, it was basically an accident, that tunnel. I filled in that hole.

Yeah, don't worry. It's all good. Yeah, they got lucky this one time. You're right, I think I'd merged his earlier love interest, Jelly or Gellie Ruble, this is Hitler. That was his niece and earlier love interest, Jelly or Gellie Ruble, this is Hitler. That was his niece and an earlier love interest. She died and that's when Eva Braun got on the scene. I've somehow, my head cannon merged the two together, so efficiency.

Yeah. Well, yeah. So he's recaptured him and Jaroslav Zafuk, four months later in October that same year, escaped from the new prison. They made their way to Prague where they were hidden for nearly eight months before their location was betrayed. Oh boo. And Bushell was initially questioned by the Gestapo, the German secret police, and warned that if he attempted to escape again, he would be executed.

From there, he was sent to the inescapable prison that we all know and love, Starlag Luft 3. Starlag. Is this, you know, the Hogan's Heroes? Is that Starlag 13? Starlag 13, yeah. And what's this one called? Starlag Luft 3. So Starlag, I looked it up.

That means it translates basically as main camp. Right. As opposed to mine camp. Exactly. I mean, why am I even explaining German to you? And what does Mein Kampf mean? Does that mean my camp? Mein Kampf is Hitler's book. Yes. What does it mean?

What does it mean, Hitler's book? It means my struggle, I think. Oh, oh, oh, man. Fuck it now. Man, I couldn't hate this guy anymore. My struggle. What a fucking loser. Oh my god.

I love what tipped you over the edge of hating Hitler is that he wrote his book title. Oh my struggle. Oh my struggle. Hitler, I'm sorry. Adolf. Dude, it's gonna blow your mind some of the things that he did in the war. Oh no, look, honestly, already had him pegged as a real piece of shit. But like some of the stuff's a bit made up, you know, like I think is that like supposedly he was a scat fan and stuff like this. I don't know if that's all true.

And they said he was vegetarian, which was always like all these sort of things to make him seem like a loser. I don't know which one's the truer, which one. But that is true. He wrote a book called My Struggle. Yeah. That's so, what a fucking loser. Do you know when you said, uh, there's some things that Hitler did that's, well that they say that he did that it's made up, my heart skipped a beat. my heart skipped a beat. Yeah. Oh my god. I'm gonna lie, please don't say that.

Please. Please do. I'm trying to believe all sorts of stuff. My god. No, I meant the allies. The propaganda on and I don't know, obviously, you know, he had one ball, vegetarian, all these sort of things were meant to make him seem, maybe they're true, I don't know if it's, you know, I had one ball, vegetarian, all these sort of things were meant to make him seem maybe they're true.

I don't know. But yeah, but it's funny to think that that if that was a made up thing, like he doesn't even eat meat. This guy come on, sign up to the war over this guy. My struggle with eating meat. It does sound like it sounds like my dad trying to bag him out. Because that's my dad. He would just he wouldn't go. He's an idiot. He goes. He doesn't eat meat. Yeah. Sounds like my dad trying to bag him out. Like, because that's what my dad, he would just, he wouldn't go, he's an idiot. He goes, he doesn't eat meat. Yeah.

Can you believe how soft this guy is? Soft as butter, mate. Oh my God. Hey, if you want something real hard, try margarine. I got some samples in the car. As soft as the soy eats. So he's been threatened. You got one more shot.

If you escape again, we'll execute you. But Roger Bushill was not ready to give up despite being sent to the escape-proof prison. That is not interesting. One thing you can say about the Nazis, reasonable. They give you a chance. Third chance. Isn't that crazy? That's right.

What a weird, in different parts of their operation. Yeah. In this place they're letting you play games? They're letting you escape multiple times. Yeah. In this place they're letting you play games, they're letting you escape multiple times. Yeah. I love that they're playing the three strike rule but you can't play baseball. Top ball, you might get hurt. We don't have helmets. Geez. God, if you get hurt under our watch, that'll look bad for us. I'll lose sleep. I worry about you boys. Yeah, it's something about these guys that they see as more worthy than others. Weird. Hmm. Hmm.

I think a big part of it was they were worried about their own men on the other side not being treated badly. Because of his reputation for escapes, Roger Bushell was immediately brought on board the camp's escape committee. They had their own committee. Headed by Lieutenant Commander James Buckley, who Bushel knew from his time in Dulag Luft, one of the other prisons. After being transferred to another prison, James Buckley handed over the position of head of the escape committee to Roger Bushel and also handed over his code name, Big X. I don't like it. I can tell Jess would love or hate Big X. Big X.

That sucks. Big X. It's sort of like we talk about movie titles back in the day and we're like, you could have chosen anything and you went for that long randomly. Like Big X, you could have been an eagle. And he also inherited it. Like it's someone else's Big X. He could be something else.

Big Y. It's confusing. It's also, it's not like the size of an X really without anything else. You need perspective. Yeah. Like if you're a big X, you'd need to have a normal size letter next to it. Otherwise it's just like an X. Yeah.

Is it that big? How do we know? No, I don't like it. I don't like it. No scale here. Okay, big X it is. Whatever. And if DMX has taught me anything, X gone give it to you.

He chose that because he had the theme song in mind. I've got a theme song, I've got a theme song. Play it again, play it again, play it again. I'm going to play it again. I'm going to play it again. I'm going to play it again. I'm going to play it again. I'm going to play it mind. I've got a theme song, got a theme song. Play it again, play it again, play it again. Is that the Chihuahua version? X gon' give it to ya.

So after sussing out the camp and its potential weaknesses, Big X announced his audacious plan. They weren't going to build one tunnel, or even two tunnels. They would build three at once, codenamed, as Dane said, Tom, Dick, and Harry. Brilliant. The ingenious part of the plan being that if the Germans discovered one massive tunnel, they'd unlikely consider that two more were also being dug at the same time. So they'd think they'd dealt with a problem and sort of start snoozing a bit.

Yeah, they'd relax a little bit. That's the end of that problem. Yeah. But really they're digging two more. And the, here's, because I was a kid when I watched this and I didn't know the phrase every Tom, Dick and Harry. Yep. That phrase was already a thing, yeah?

And then they named the tunnels because of the phrase or did the phrase come because of the tunnels? I think the tunnel, I think the phrase is already a thing, yeah? And then they named the tunnels because of the phrase or did the phrase come because of the tunnels? I think the tunnel, I think the phrase is already around. Yeah. And so. That would be my instinct. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. And a big part of it was they never wanted to refer to them as the tunnel.

Bush will actually banned everyone from even saying the word tunnel in case the guards overheard it. So if you was talking about Tom, Dick or Harry, they're pretty common British names. So it might sound like you're just talking about a dude that you know. Yeah. Or one of the guys here. But you know, you know the phrase every Tom, Dick and Harry. Yeah. Sort of sounds like everything that sort of does fit in line with the tunnel.

I don't know. It just, it fits it. Now that I'm saying it out loud, I assumed what you're saying is true, but I, now that I've said it out loud, I'm like, oh, maybe it's the other way around. I don't know. That it came from the, I'm just doing a quick Google here. This is from the Google AI, which I trust with my life. Yep.

Every Tom, Dick and Harry means any person, blah, blah, blah. The phrase is an idiom that's been used in English for centuries. Variations even dating back to Shakespeare. Right. Right. Ah, that's been used in English for centuries. Variations even dating back to Shakespeare. Right. Right. Ah, that's cool. I love that Shakespeare was writing characters called Macbeth and also Tom, Dick and Harry. Tom, Dick and Harry.

Yeah, there you go. So it was a phrase around, I guess there is a reason that's why they picked Tom, Dick and Harry. Yeah. So it was pretty crazy to build three tunnels at once, but possibly even more audacious was Bushel or big X His plan to get out so many people in one escape usually would be small groups like we had heard of before three or four Yeah, 20 would be seen as heaps. That's a massive escape huge

Initially he aimed high and thought of getting the whole camp out in one go eleven thousand That'd be great on his compound there was 1200 at the time, but yeah. That's still a lot. 11,000. 11,000. We're going to escape everyone over seven weeks, though. One even noticed that the camp slowly getting away. And the gym was like-

I'm even getting the guards out. Yeah. We're getting everyone. Didn't people used to work here? The Commandants like, what the hell? Things are running so smoothly. Yeah. We haven't had any issues here for a while.

Hang on. Hang on a second. We've got a real excess of food. It's almost like there's less people here now. No one's brought me in my latte this morning. Hang on a second. That guy came in for thirds. He then, so you thought, let's get everyone.

He then scaled it back slightly, but still the audacious aim was to get out 200 men in one go. Wow. So like, it's still huge. That's a big jump from the three or four you're saying is the standard. Three or four was like pretty common. Twenty, which someone had attempted before was seen as like, holy shit. And he's done that times ten.

That's like a do go on live show. All trying to sneak out. Hey, don't worry, we're watching you. Which is easy because Dave and I are watching one audience member and Jess is having a break. She's having a rest, we do it in shifts. So trying to get 200 out, all of them would be wearing civilian clothes and possessing a complete range of forged papers and escape equipment to get them from the well behind enemy lines back to allied territory.

And the other problem, like normally you lose a few and it might be a little while before they're noticed, but you are going to notice quickly when so many have gone. Oh, when you wake up and there's 200 people missing. So the search will happen a lot quicker. It starts immediately, yeah. You can't just fake roll call with two guys not being there. Yeah, you're almost sure that some of them aren't going to make it, you'd think. But maybe the more that are out there, the better chance some of them will.

Yeah, that's right. I think he's doing a numbers game. Let's try and get as many home as possible. Hello, Quanus. Can I have 200 flights to Ingo? I'd like to pay in points. As discussed on the escape from Cold It's Castle episode that I did many years ago about POWs, any escapers who made it home or safely to allied territory was considered as scoring

a home run. That's what they marked it as. Probably a softball home run. Yeah. Let's say three strikes, home runs. Yeah, they really want baseball to be out into the coroneal. So Big X was hoping for 200 plus home runs in one night, which would be wild. Yeah.

A real victory for the Allies. It took an unbelievable amount of planning and cooperation from the camp. Like I said earlier, it's estimated that half the camp were about 600 people were part of the plan or contributed in some way, and they've all got to shut the hell up about it. Many were bored and didn't think it would actually go anywhere, but others committed everything to getting out. It became like their obsession. Again from the Pegasus archives, from the outset security had been a priority and as

such no prisoner ever asked questions or drew attention to any happenings in the camp which might be regarded as odd. As Roger Bushel himself put it to a group of new arrivals, if you see me walking around with a tree trunk sticking out of my arse, don't ask any questions, because it'll be for a damned good reason. That's fun. They're building the biggest pummel horse ever. I like to think that that's unrelated.

I think that that was a sex thing. This is all a cover for the fact he likes to fuck trees. that that's unrelated I think that that was a sex thing guys now years later people like hang on he never the tree never really came into it in there. Yeah, years later. Hang on. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, anyway, where'd he end up? Well, I heard he moved to the bush.

Adam. Yeah, that's right. Had a tree change. Like, I think that they just came into the barracks one day and he was just with a branch just whacking it into his butt. And then he's like, don't question it. And also don't tell anyone. It's got to do with the escape. At that point, he hadn't even thought of escape.

He's like, now I've got to get a plan together. Three tunnels. That sounds crazy. I'll explain this. I'll throw the heat off me for a minute. His big axe was an oak. Hey, bit of fun. This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform designed to help you stand out and succeed online.

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templates with options for every use and category. So it's nice and easy and intuitive. No experience required. I love that. And if you love that too, you can head to squarespace.com slash do go on for a free trial and to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com slash do go on. So let's meet this crack team. Now there's literally dozens of guys I could tell you about, all with full lives and back

stories. There were men from the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Lithuania, France, Greece, and Argentina all involved. So there are many stories, but a few we can focus on are, for example, Henry Berland, 26 year old Canadian Spitfire pilot. Berland was an experienced former miner. He became one of the leading.

We're all former miners though. Now adult. I'm really padding here. He was a boy, a little boy for quite a while. Not anymore though. But then a transitional phase of teenagerhood and then- And now he's 26. Now he used to work in mining.

He became one of the leading and most energetic of the 600 officers involved in the tunneling. He was regarded as, quote, the toughest tunneller of them all. In the escape plan, he was from a group of escapers who were going to be known as the hard asses. Great. For their plan was to- They're the ones with the trees up there. You need a really hard ass.

Their plan was to avoid public transport and travel on foot a considerable distance across the country. So they were just going to bush it. Yep. They were going to bush it. Yep. They were going to bush it. Big time. Oh yeah. That's a hard answer.

We can also talk about James Katanak, an Australian 22 year old bomber pilot. Born in Melbourne, he reportedly became the youngest squadron leader bomber pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force at the age of just 20. In 1942, he and his crew were shot down over northern Russia. He avoided ditching in the Arctic waters, saving the lives of his crew, but then they were taken prisoner by the Germans. Katnack was fluent in German and took trouble to learn conversational Norwegian from Scandinavian prisoners in the camp, and he teamed up with Norwegians Heldo Espelid, Nils Jorgen Fugselang and New Zealand, Arnold George Christiansen.

You should have started with him. It was of Scandinavian descent. Their aim was to, if they escaped, was to get to Denmark. So they're one little team. There's all these little teams within the 200. Do you think about this when you're doing your daily word learning thing, whatever that is, what's it called again? Duolingo.

Duolingo. You think in one day, if I'm ever trapped behind French enemy lines, yeah, he's learning French for an app. Oh, dude, I've never thought of you as more of a man than when you just told it your little word learning thing. I don't think I said it like that. Or whatever you call it. Yeah. Yeah.

I just was a concoct. You're probably a vegetarian too. You're bloody soft. Look at you. I looked it up. He apparently was a bit of a vegetarian, but the both having one ball was probably a myth, but they're not sure. But the English did sing a song about how Hitler only had one or one ball was probably a myth, but they're not sure. But the English did sing a song about how Hitler only had one ball. Yeah, it was more of a rhyme. Right. Yeah. More of a rap.

It was actually one of the first rap. English people actually invented rap. Yeah. With the Hitler only had one ball. His knees weak. Arms were heavy. One ball. Sweaty. Oh my God. I can't help but feel like maybe, and this is rewriting history, but I think probably the Polish guys just dug the hole and then the English and the Australians just took

the credit. I just jumped in. I reckon that's what happened. And they were like, we planned this. We did the work. That feels, that feels properly accurate. Yeah. Yeah.

And then the Americans were like, well, in the movie we did it. We, yeah. And yeah, we've, we've got Steve McQueen playing it. Which brings me to Major Johnny Dodge, also known as the Artful Dodger. Brilliant. How'd he come up with that? What's that thing? Nickname generator. I feel like that actually works pretty well.

Partly due to his large size, he did not help build the tunnels, too much of a unit, but instead he helped create diversions such as choir singing to help disguise the noise of the digging. How's he going to get out of the tunnel then? Or he's just not in there digging? He's not in there digging. He is apparently small enough to get through the tiny tunnel. How convenient. Yeah, that's exactly what Darned said was going to happen.

No, I'm helping though. We're singing. No, no, no. It's team effort. Team effort. Yeah. Surely being big would help digging. I had to carry 200 kilos of dirt today.

Yeah. Well, you didn't have to sing for an hour. Yeah. I had to carry Ben and John, who were flat as a top. Do you know how hard it is to sing Good King Wenceslas for an hour straight? Jesus. Those boys cannot harmonise. These little wings. Yeah, we've all had cannot harmonize. Please, Louise. Yeah, we've all had a rough one. No doubt about that.

Say, Ben, say. How do you not know the lyrics to Sex on Fire? It was huge. It was another one of the hottest ones I've ever heard. I've had that one year. So the movie The Great Escape shows a lot of Americans being involved in this game, but in reality they were involved in the initial digging, but after this they were sent to their own part

of the camp. So- Oh, that's rough. So Johnny Dodge was the only American born person involved in the actual escape on the night, but he had become a British citizen in 1915. He was also a distant relative of Winston Churchill. His mother married one of Churchill's cousins. Right.

We all claim someone famous, bruv. That's- Yeah. His mother married one of Churchill's cousins. Right. We all claim someone famous, bro. That's a- Yeah. His mother married one of Churchill's cousins. Yeah. The more exposure you get, the more cousins you find. I think, I don't know if that works for white fellas as well, but a hundred percent. Every time I'm on TV, I've got a new cousin.

Cousin Dane, it's me. You're like, who the hell are you? You're going to a party tonight and it said very specifically no plus ones for you. Yeah. And I think this is making sense now. Don't bring your cousins. Someone's going to rock up and be like, yeah, I'm Dane's cousin. They're like, yeah, join the queue out here.

There's 50 of them. There's two lines. One's with invites and the other one's Dane's cousin. Yeah, accurate. If you want to sell beers, invite my cousin. Okay. Is it an open bar or not? If the bar's open, don't invite us.

You know what, you're right, actually. It's accurate. Anyway, we're going to have fun. Cousin Matthew. Tonight, we're all Dane's cousins. A few more of these guys. Sergeant Per Bergsland, a 26 year old Norwegian fighter pilot who before the war competed in orienteering, placing second at the individual Norwegian championships.

What a nerd. What a nerd, but navigating on foot through the forest, pretty good skill to possess when you're in a scapegoat. All of a sudden he's cool. Yeah, finally he's like, I good skill to possess. Yes, handy. All of a sudden he's cool. Yeah, finally! He's like, I love the POG. Orientiering is like treasure hunt, sort of, right? Sort of, yeah.

With a compass and a map, yeah. That sounds like, well that sounds cool, Dane. I don't know. Do you think we have any skills that would be useful? Oh, wasn't there a podcast in there? Yeah, there was propaganda. They set up a theatre stage. Yeah, love that.

I think we'd thrive in the prison. I'm talking once we're out of the prison. Oh yeah, no, no, no. No wonder there was people that wanted to stay. I'm staying in there doing the shows. I'm like, you guys go, because that guy keeps getting all the lead roles. Yeah, you're trying to push him down the hole. No, you should escape.

You're pretty fit, Bob. No, no, you should escape. You should escape. Look at that. Yeah. You're pretty fit. Well, I can see. No, I'm not. You got, well, you got leg strength. Mmm. Yeah. And what will that do? Well, I think if, you know, there was like a log over a path, you could kick it out of the way. Mm-hmm. Um.

Yeah. There. Stuff like that. And they'd carry you for the rest of the way. Yeah, someone would have to carry me. Just in case her log's ever over the road. I'm going to put her on your back. She's deceptively heavy too, so it's really annoying. Then there's Romaldus Markanus, 36 year old flight lieutenant from Lithuania, who was player and coach for the Lithuanian national football team. Wow.

One of their best players. Player and coach. Sounds like Ronald McDonald trying to have a secret identity. Are you Ronald McDonald? No. He sounded like Ronald. Romulus Marquinkis. Yeah.

Kinda sounds like Ronald McDonald in Gladiator time. Yes. He was. Enjoy my biggest macamus. Fuck. Maximus. Macamus. Maximus is right there. Everyone's from Mac-imus. It should have made sense.

You should have said enjoy my biggest mac-imus and be like okay. It had to be biggest mac-imus. Okay. Because it's a big mac. Is that what you were going for? Yeah. Then that's the only way the joke worked. But Maximus, okay. It had to be biggest Mac-imus. Okay. Cause it's a big Mac. Is that what you were going for? Yeah. And that's the only way the joke worked. Maximus.

Maximus Mac-imus. Doesn't that work? Bigger Mac-imus. I think that that's better. Isn't it? Oh, no, I think it needed to be Mac-imus. Mac-imus. Okay.

Mac-imus. Mac-imus. I will edit out anything that didn't. I don't want anyone to ever think I doubt myself. So edit out all of that. anything that didn't. I don't want anyone to ever think I doubt myself. So I don't doubt all of that. So as well as being a professional football player, Romilardus Marconis, his fluent command of several languages, most importantly,

German was seen as valuable. His extensive knowledge of Germany's military and transport positions led to his nickname, Know-it-all. That's not a nice... Yeah, that's a longish one as well. Yeah, that's not a nice, yeah, that's. That's a longish one as well. Yeah, it's not a good nickname, just call him by his name. He analyzed German news reports, but his most important contribution was his compilation

of the German railway schedules, an essential part of the escape plan. All right, this is what would have happened today. Know-it-all, Noah, Ark, Arky, Archimedes bath boy scrubber rubber ducky rubber dub dub the W.A. George W. Bush Bush boy hair hairball furball kitten kitten kibble the boo boo bear Boo Bear, Freddys, Twinkle Toes. That's it, Twinkle Toes. Twinkle Toes. That's killer.

Stop me when you're ready. Hey, where did you get the nickname from? Well, actually, yeah. It's pretty easy. Pretty straightforward, actually. I 100% know that they went. His name's Rickart, Rickart, fucking know it all. Yes.

Yes. So, according to the plan, know it all, okay, Twinkle Toes. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. speak or understand Lithuanian as Markinkis was the only member fluent in the language. So he'd do all the talking and the other three would just be like, yeah, you're definitely Lithuanian and hoping that if they speak to someone who knows Lithuanian, they're like shit.

And that is the classic thing, right? Yeah. One of us, maybe me did a topic years ago, the Churchill's Ministry of Ungenerally Warfare. Yes. You almost got some of those words right. Yeah. I did the report on that one and that's why not so well. But I watched the movie recently and there is that classic scene where they're pretending

to be, one of them speaks the language and they called their bluff and said, no, I want to hear him answer. And it was like, they pretty much had to be like, all right, you got us. Yeah. That is, that's the nightmare, right? When you're like, please don't ask me anything. Well, I'll just say they're mute. There's a moment in the great escape movie, which people debate whether this

actually happened where Richard Attenborough has escaped and they're speaking German as they, their papers are being inspected as they get on the bus. And the one of the guards says in English, good luck. And he returns to him and says, thank you. And then goes, fuck, like I was just speaking English and then it's on. And some people were like, did that actually happen? We don't know. What about in the A team when, have you guys seen the new A team with Liam Neeson?

Not new, but like not the TV show. There's a scene like that where they're at an airport and one of their guys, and he's like a bit nuts, this, this character, but he's a great pilot. And they're at a, they're trying to- That's such a classic. Yeah. That's a- He's like the best flyer, but he's insane.

And, um, they're at an airport and he's in some sort of disguise and his passport says he's from somewhere in Africa, I think. And the guy starts talking to him in a different language that he should absolutely know if he's from this country. And there's this moment where they're all like, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. And then he starts speaking the language and you're like, ah, this guy's cool. Great fun. It's similar to the Inglorious Bastards when he does the three gestures.

Yes. Yeah. Oh, that's great. That is. I thought you were going to talk about Brad Pitt'sards when he does the three gestures. Yes, yes. Yeah. Oh, that's great. That is. I thought you were going to talk about Brad Pitt's Italian, Arrivederci. Arrivederci. Purposefully bad, but it's very funny.

So, remember, Mark Inkus, he's Lithuanian. He's going to travel with three people that are going to pretend to be Lithuanian. One of those who didn't speak Lithuanian was Tim Wallen, 28-year-old British bomber pilot, a well-known character in the prison camp system for his skillful drawing. He used his artistic ability as head of forgery. He was also known for his enormous handlebar mustache, which had to be shaved off to the to escape due to its unmistakable RAF style. So he looked like he was in the British because he's mustach.

He looks like he's got to say hello, Gubna. Top of the year. He looked British. Yeah, because he's mustached. He looks like he's about to say, hello, gubna. Hello, gubna. Yeah. Top of the morning. Forgery's got to play well into this because I can you, I'm thinking back in the day, surely you could forge a plane ticket or a boat ticket. Yeah, it's all handwritten, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, because they're forging, they're all leaving with documents. All of them have documents to go into and it's like thousands of them. Crazy. documents. All of them have documents to go into and it's like thousands of them. Crazy. I'm keep referencing old episodes, but I did a report about Huey Lewis last year. Right. And he, he, um, backpacked around, um, and he got his first flight out of America by just forging a plane ticket. This is like in the 70s or the 60s.

Is that Huey Lewis or is that the news this is why i'm on top baby no it was Huey Lewis two more of these guys because they're all going to come up uh uh Jens Muehler Norwegian pilot also only 26 years old Muehler later Norwegian pilot, also only 26 years old. Muehler later constructed an air pump for ventilation of the tunnel. And finally, Bram van der Stok. My god. 29 year old fighter pilot. And not just any fighter pilot, the most decorated aviator in Dutch history.

Whoa. Whoa. Tinsel. Everything. It was crazy. It looks fantastic. It was crazy. It looked fantastic. Yeah. It was easy. Oh my God. It was a sensory override, but it was beautiful. He couldn't see shit. Yeah.

He was in the Dutch Air Force, and after the Netherlands were defeated and occupied by the Nazis, he fled to Scotland as a stowaway on a ship. Following a refresher course with the Royal Air Force's No. 57 Operational Training Unit, he was posted to its squadron in 1941, ship following a refresher course with the Royal Air Force's number 57 operational training unit. He was posted to its squadron in 1941, flying the submarine, sorry, super marines. Flying the submarine. Bloody hell. That takes a lot of talent. He gets to Scotland and he's like, in the Netherlands, we did this a little differently.

In the Netherlands, we did this a little different. No, the Super Marine Spitfire. God, that's so good. With which he went on to achieve six confirmed kills amongst Luftwaffe aircraft. Does that make him an ace? Yeah, qualifying him as a flying ace. Yeah, it's almost like if you just let Dave finish a fucking sentence. Sorry, Jeff.

Ace confirmed. Is that five? Five plus one. Five plus one. That gets you ace. So he's an Five plus one. Five plus one. Wow. That gets you ace. So he's an ace plus one. Yeah. Four.

What a guy. Is that right? Is it five for an ace? Five. If you shoot down five enemy aircraft, you become a flying ace. Wow. And then what is it? If you get to 10, or I can't remember, or 20, and you're the ace of aces.

Right. That's so funny. Which is very rare. Like serial killers who do that don't, they're like, where do I get it cool? Where's their accolade? Yeah, I reckon in the serial killer community, they're like, he's an ace. Actually, he's so true. He's the most decorated serial killer.

Other sickos are like, that's amazing. Yeah, well done. Do we breeze over, like, they ventilated the shaft. Oh yeah. How? Oh, I'm gonna talk about that. Okay, right. Well, they probably called in a HVAC team and they, yeah, I hope, hopefully they're

cooling and heating it as well. But airflow is important. Yeah, of course. You probably want about 20 changes of air per hour. It's a- Ventilated the show sounds like Isaac Hayes had a stroke. Also, finally on Brandvanderstock, he's not only a flying ace, also before the war he'd studied medicine. So Dr. Dreambird, am I right? After being captured, he worked in the POW's camp medical facility and the great escape would be his third escape attempt. So there are a few of the people that are hoping to escape. Let's talk tunnels, aka Tom, Dick and Harry.

Tom began in a darkened corner next to a stove chimney in Hut 123 and extended west into the forest. It was found by the Germans and dynamited. Oh no. That makes it bigger. That's perfect. Like, holy shit. Thank you so much. There's room to move now. That's perfect. Like, holy shit. Thank you so much.

It's so much quicker with dynamite. I was using a bowl. Why didn't we think of that? Can we get a little bit over here as well? Yeah, towards the fence. Thank you. No, so they destroyed it, which again, wasn't the worst thing in the world as they hoped that the Germans would assume that they'd found the only tunnel.

So not knowing that two others were still going. Yeah, they'd be feeling pretty smug that they'd thwarted a plan and all the English guys are like Oh, no Ages on that yeah, that was my only hope This is the the there's two Harry Potter characters in this Tom and Harry There's also a dick but that I'm leaving that out The author is Tom. Harry. There's also a dick, but that I'm leaving that out. The author is Tom. Yes. Oh yeah.

Tom Riddle. Where does she get her ideas? From war. Has she had an original fucking thought in her head? From the Nazis. Dick. Jesus, Tom, and you're're like, oh you unoriginal bitch Has she had a single original fucking thought

This is fiction mate It could be anything and you've gone for Tom You've gone for Tom He's your big bad guy His middle name's Marvolo You've led with Tom Come on, you are Fucking believable

I'm sorry. She's a prick. Yeah. She's a tartless hack. Never had an original thought. Had some pretty crook ones. Even those are unoriginal. Very old.

Bad thoughts. So then we get to Tom, I'm afraid. The dream's over. It would be annoying if you were assigned to Tom. You'd be like, oh fuck my, why our one? That's annoying. Yeah. Actually, it'd be pretty cool.

Cause you're off the hook now. Yeah. You're off the hook now. You're off the hook now. You're off the hook now. You're off the hook now. You're off the hook now. You're off the hook now. You're off the hook now. Tom, I'm afraid the dream's over. Would it be annoying if you were assigned to Tom? You'd be like, oh, fuck my, why our one? That's annoying. Actually, it'd be pretty cool because you're off the hook now.

Yeah, hey, I tried, Diggins. I knocked off. Thanks guys. See ya. You guys keep going. I'm joining the choir. Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna put on a play.

Dick's entrance was hidden in a drain sump in the washroom of Hut 122. That was a really funny sentence. Just so you know, Dave, that we, we saw that that was fun. Yeah. Where did you hide your Dick entrance? It had the most secure trap door. It was to go in the same direction as Tom and the prisoners decided that the hut

would not be a suspected tunnel site as it was further from the wire than the others. Like why would you start in the furthest part away from the wall or the fence? Like that'd be crazy. So they chose that on purpose. The men working on this tunnel, however, watched in dismay as the area where Dick was to exit began being cleared by the Germans as the prison was being expanded. So the place where it was to pop up was soon to be enclosed.

Oh, man. So where they'd pop up was soon to be enclosed. Oh, man. So where they'd pop up- Would just be a different part of the prison. Oh, dear. So Dick was abandoned. Yeah. Which- It was just an inappropriate place for a Dick to pop up.

Yeah. You know, like the cinema. Supermarket. There's lots of inappropriate places. Podcast shoot. Yeah. Okay, I of inter-paper places. Podcast shoot. Yeah. Okay. I won't say it again. So to our out, which left good old Harry. Harry began in Hut 104.

Like I said earlier, the Huts were about two feet off the ground on stilts, kind of like a Queenslander style house. Meaning it was very hard to get a tunnel going from within the Huts, but every hut had a stove that was used to boil water and heat the room. This sat on a large bit of concrete that went all the way down to the earth below, and over several months this concrete was chipped away until they had access to the ground below, but you couldn't see from the outside. So these, their rooms had Kitchenettes? Jeez. So, the stove was always super hot, so the German guards wouldn't go near it when they were searching or inspecting. And of course, they never suspected that every night, using bits of wood, the prisoners were lifting it off, like this red hot stove, and then jumping in the hole and tunneling

directly down. And they had a lot of digging to do. The plan for the tunnel was to go under the Vorlager, which contained the German administration area, the sick hut and the isolation cells to emerge at the woods on the northern edge of the camp and pop up under the cover of the forest. Look to go all the way to the forest.

You pop up, they can't even see us from the forest. I know who's had this idea. Yeah. Big X in his fun stories. Big X, like, Get me in there. Just want to be as close to the forest as possible. If everyone could let me go first for an hour or two. And then you send everyone else out.

I'll make sure it's safe out there. I've got the pick of the letter. Why are you going in backwards? He's going to the tunnel arse first. That seems that doesn't seem like the comfiest way to get through. OK. They had to dig really deep to get through the sandy top layer of soil and avoid the microphones that Germans used to detect tunnels. Harry was nine meters or 30 feet deep.

Wow. Like so deep. Yeah, that's crazy. Digging by hand. Like, so deep. Deep. Yeah, that's crazy. It was digging by hand in secret, this massive shaft down. At the base, they dug out a large room used as a workshop, and eventually it housed an air pump, pushing fresh air along the ducting invented by Squadron leader Bob Nelson of the 37th Squadron. The pumps were built of odd items, including pieces from the beds, hockey sticks and knapsacks as well as a few tins that they had.

So it's ingenious. They're just making stuff out of nothing. So, yeah, okay. And I think it was a hand air pump. Like one person would sit there and sort of pump this ventilating system and it would just pump air all the way along the tunnel as it got bigger and bigger and bigger. Crazy. So crazy.

Yeah. And there's like a little, like a full bedroom size room at the bottom at the entrance. So basically before they started digging horizontally that they dug out. Right. So they've got like a whole underground cave. Wow. How long is this taking to do? Yeah.

Months and months and months. Yeah. Yeah. The patience. And then when bits are being discovered, you just like the amount of hours we put into that. I know, that was so long. But cleverly, you had two decoys, sort of. So nine meters down, they began digging horizontally for 102 meters or 333 feet.

That's how long this thing is. Wow. So long. The tunnel was very small, however, only 0.6 meters square. So it was like 60 centimeters wide, 60 centimeters tall, or about two feet square. And the sandy walls were shored up with pieces of wood scavenged from all over the camp, much from the prisoners' beds. Of the 20 or so boards originally supporting each mattress, only about

eight were left on each bed. Which would be a terrible night's sleep on your back. Yeah, well, they would be... After digging all day. I hope they got to keep their slats to the diggers. They would weigh nothing but this stage too. Yeah, that's true. So, they'd be fine. Yeah. This also meant that... What about when the housekeeping came through to change over the beds in the morning?

Yeah. When they noticed. Housekeeping. When they noticed. Little mint on the pillow. That's nice. So they had a lot of dirt to dispose of. History.com writes, the captives excavated at least 100 tons of sand.

Usual method of disposing of sand was similar to what I said before. Scattering it discreetly on the surface. Small pouches made of towels or long underpants were attached inside the prisoners' trousers as they walked around and the sand could be scattered. Sometimes they would dump sand into the small gardens that are allowed to tend. As one prisoner turned to the soil, another would release sand while they both appeared to be in conversation. The prisoners wore great coats to conceal the bulges of the sand and then referred

to as penguins because of their supposed resemblance. Is that a penguin in your pants? I love the sources history.com. They got in early. They did well. They got there. Also, everything is history. They could just be reporting the news, realistically.

History from five minutes ago. This just in. Very recent history.com. That's what the news site should be called. History from five minutes ago, this just in. Race, veryracinhistory.com. So the news site should be called. In sunny months, sand could be carried outside and scattered in blankets used for sunbathing. They do sound like they're having a good time. More than 200 were used to make an estimated 25,000 trips.

So just carrying little bits of sand here, little bits of sand there. Wow. They also started to use the abandoned dick tunnel to store dirt and supplies. Oh, clever. Is that the one that's been dynamited? No. That was Tom.

Oh, yeah. Dick's the one they abandoned because they went, well, we're going to pop up on the other side of the prison. Shit. So they converted more than 1400 powdered milk tin cans provided by the Red Cross into digging tools and lamps in which wicks fashioned from pajama cords were burned in mutton fat skimmed off the greasy soup that was served. Fuck, they're so clever.

Eventually they hooked into the camp's supply of electricity to hook up a string of light bulbs the whole way along the tunnel. So yeah, none of our skills are useful for this at all. I can't do any of this shit. Again, I wouldn't be like, oh, we could make a candle out of this. I'd be like, all right, I'll I'll I'll play a character in this little play and then I'll tend to the tomatoes and just wait to be released one day. Hopefully hoping.

Oh, die here. Could be worse. Mutton is lamb. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. OK, because it's not very fatty. Oh, mutton is sheep. Yeah, it's excellent. It's excellent old shape. Oh yeah. When you have lamb chops, do you reckon that comes from a kid lamb? Yes. Yeah. That's true. Isn't it? No, I think it's a sheep. I don't think that's right. I think lamb is from baby sheep and Martin is adult sheep. Well, Matt, someone here every Well, Matt would know he is a fuck-on.

Yeah, they're not they're not very fatty, surely. So for them to create. Yeah, they're getting enough, like a little bit here, a little bit there. And then they make these little candles out of it. Yeah. It's crazy. Because they're going to make they're going to make candles for a hundred meters. Yeah. So that's insane. Yeah. What are we talking a candle every ten, you reckon?

Well, at first and then eventually, they hooked into the electricity and it was a lot easier. But they also constructed an underground trolley system pulled by ropes to transport the sand with switch over junctions, named after two London landmarks. There was first Piccadilly Circus and then Leicester Square. Wow. The English really took over here, didn't they? Apparently, Donut's lamb is only called lamb if the sheep is under a year old when it's killed. So it is like a baby, baby sheep.

So lamb chops. Yeah. Every single lamb chop comes from- Lamb. A baby sheep. That's why at the restaurant I always say, how old was this lamb? Yeah. How old? That's mutton, mate. Mutton chops. That's why at the restaurant I always say, how old was this lamb? Yeah. How old?

That's mutton, mate. Mutton chops. That's mutton. I don't want mutton chops, mate. I pay for lamb. I want it yum. All right, sir. Jesus Christ.

You've made this weird, honestly, sir. The German guards were referred to by the POWs as goons and apparently unaware of the allied connotation, willingly accepted the nickname after being told it stood for German officer or non-com. Which is so great. German guards were followed everywhere they went by prisoners who used an elaborate system of signals to warn others of their location. Oh, sorry, something in my throat.

Excuse me. What bird was that, Jess? It's beautiful, cool. Yeah, it was a magpie. It was a cuckoo yet to learn. Yeah, it's a cuckoo with an accent. We're in Germany, so. They also use subtle signs such as turning a page of a book or fiddling with the shoelace We're in Germany, so. They also use subtle signs such as turning a page of a book or fiddling with a shoelace

to raise notice of an approaching guard. So you can't actually read the book? Oh no. If you're enjoying the book, everyone's like freaking out because there's like 50 guards on the side. Oh my god. Don't fumble if you're tying your shoelace together, otherwise all of a sudden people are standing to attention.

You gotta like tie your shoelace and yell out, this is real. I'm actually, I've got arthritis. I'm sorry it takes me longer than normal people to tie shoelaces, I'm sorry. All of a sudden everyone's digging a hole. No don't do that, there's a guard right here. Other guards were bribed to smuggle in items or look the other way, often with chocolate as the prisoners were sent chocolate by the Red Cross. But by this late stage of the war, the Germans were no longer getting any chocolate.

They also supplied railway timetables, maps and many official papers so that they could be forged. Some of them for bribery and some because they were like anti-Nazi themselves. Yes. Not happy to be there. I- Okay. Here's- this is going to blow your mind. They could read their mail before it comes in Yeah, and then just get the chocolate at the source

But they're giving them the pack they're being like, oh no Chockeys this week boys, sorry But we're not cheats I'm blowing to me. Yeah, so many atrocities being committed, but no, no, no, we're honest. We don't open other people's minds. Okay, go draw a line somewhere. That's between you and the Red Cross. Mail fraud. Yeah, we won't do that.

So despite all this being said, the guards were still dangerous and the POWs were told many times by the senior people, particularly they would be shot if they attempted to escape. So there is a lot at stake. Our prisoners obtained cameras and travel documents that a team of artists used to forge identity cards, passports and travel passes. They replicated travel stamps by carving patterns in boot heels and using shoe polishes ink. Fuck off. That's so clever.

This is unbelievable, but between seven and eight thousand forged documents were printed for this escape attempt. That's incredible. Isn't that crazy? Because they're getting bus- like train passes, identity cards, passports, all this stuff to back up who they are. And it just takes one of these Nazi guards that they're trusting to be, you know, dodgy and sell them out. And that's so poor. Apparently they'd also often get a guard to, hey, can you help us out with this for a bit of chocolate? And then once they did that, they'd say, all right, mate, you have to keep helping me or I'll tell your boss what they did for us. And then sort of start blackmailing them.

Right. Hans, can you get me some paper? Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. How much do you need? Seven thousand. Just keep it coming. I'll give you a finger of a Kit Kat. I'll give you a finger of a Kit Kat. Oh, all right.

Once Kit Kat. Hundreds of makeshift compasses were laid and distributed so they could like guide themselves once they're on the run. For the escape and aftermath, they scrounged everything they could. According to German accounts after the escape, the materials missing from the camp included 4,000 bed boards, 1,699 blankets, 161 pillowcases, 34 chairs, 478 spoons, 30 shovels. You'd be like, well, they're planning. Yeah.

A thousand feet of electric wire, 600 feet of rope, 192 bed covers and almost three and a half thousand towels. So every day there's three. Housekeeping so confused. Three of them are saying, three for every man are saying, I lost my towel again. Yeah. The German government. Well, you won't get your deposit back.

Yeah. German government invoiced the Australian and the UK government. I want money for 3000 Sheridan towels. Your people stole from us. Gee, the people- imagine if when this all went down, the people running the camp would have gotten a bit of strife. It's like, they must have been like, what the fuck have you been doing?

Yeah, yeah. What? I know nothing. How did you- How did you not notice this? Well, I guess that's an excuse. It turns out it's one of the escapees pretending. Even the people are like, oh, no, I want this guy to answer. Is, is they, are they distracted by the war happening?

Because this sounds like there's a lot going on under their noses. Apparently, they start suspecting that something's going on and then they find the big tunnel and they go, all right, we stopped it. Right. Things start going missing. They keep searching for it, but their tunnels are so well hidden that they look for them, but they literally, it's right under their noses. Sometimes they actually search the room that the tunnel is in, but they just don't check the boiler.

Right. Because why would it be under there? That's boiling hot. That's crazy. Yeah. We've searched the room. All right. Onto the next room.

And they're like, keep getting away with it. Of the two hundred. And if they checked a boiler, what are the odds that it's the one? Yeah, it's a couple hundred rooms. Yeah. Of the two hundred who were to attempt escape, they were given a number that designated the order of who would go down the tunnel first. The people with the highest chance of success due to fitness, language is spoken, and also who had contributed the most to the attempt

were highest up the list. I believe Big X gave himself number three. Yeah, brilliant. That's, that's diplomatic. Yeah. Yeah. No, you go first. You go first. You go first. No, That's, that's diplomatic. Yeah. Yeah. No, you go first, you go first, you go first. No, but no, just those two. Yeah.

I mean, I don't want to be the first one to pop my head out of the hole. That's, I mean, I might be shot. Yeah. It does feel like that's the, that's the prime spot really. Yeah. Yeah. If two get away, you're like, all right, looks like I can get away too. From one to 1100, what are you rating your number as?

Poor, probably 1099. What are you, Jess? Yeah. Jess is 1100. rating your number as? Poor, probably a thousand and ninety nine. What are you, Jess? Yeah. Jess is eleven. I'm just in front of, I'm behind you. No, you're in front, you're in front of me. I don't know if you want to be the ones, any of the ones getting left behind either, because they're going to take it out on someone.

Yeah, I'm the one left in the camp. No, I'm a good boy. I didn't know, they didn't invite me. I guess this week's play is going to be a solo. Your dream. Yeah, my dream. Oh, no. Oh, no. A two hour tap dancing extravaganza.

Oh, I hate it, but the show must go on. That's why they call me Twinkle Toes. It's actually a very literal nickname. Matt's going first, I reckon. Yeah. You know a few languages. You reckon I did the most? Yeah. And of the I reckon. Yep. You know a few languages. I think Zerik and I did the most. Yeah.

And of the fittest. Yep. There you go. What about you, Dane? Do you fancy your chances of getting out? I don't, no, I don't reckon I'm, I don't reckon I'm fitting down the hole. Well, they got that math, that big unit. Yeah.

And he got to basically not dig it and then he got through. Yeah. Is that big X? No, that was, that was. Bush X? No, that was that was bushels Geez, what was that big guy's name? Buckleys yeah, you want to come in behind Dog actually do you want to be right behind him? Maybe not. No, that was awesome. That was the artful Dodger Dodge the American yeah, the American-born guy who basically his job was to sing songs and distract

I'm unfortunately behind the American-born guy who basically his job was to sing songs and distract people. Yeah. Yeah, great. I'm unfortunately behind the American. I'm dodged. I'm picturing like that episode of The Simpsons where Homer goes down the slide. You don't want to be coming behind him. Yeah. Get stuck in the water slide.

And those kids getting mad, nightmarish. The kid's limbs getting squeezed. Yeah, that's right. And so they're filling up the whole evening. Oh my god. It's, I don't, yeah. I'm, I'm also very aware. Like I'd be down that hole with Dodge and then Dodge goes, look I'm stuck.

And I'm like, yeah, no. Like I wouldn't even be like, what? I'd go, yeah. Yeah, no shit Dodge. Yeah, we both are. Yeah. So the first group of a hundred were called serial offenders because a lot of them tried to escape many times.

They were guaranteed a place and included 30 who spoke German well or had the history of escapes and an additional 70 considered to have put in the most work on the tunnel. So that's the first hundred. The rest from a hundred to two hundred was a lottery system. Wow. Try and keep it fair. I like this. My God.

And they all had elaborate backstories of which they were pretending to be, of who they were pretending to be when they escaped and needed papers as well as fake uniforms, clothing and items to assume their identities. Some were like, they're like, I'm a lumber mill worker on leave or I'm a forced laborer who were, they're permitted to travel around Germany, but could be from Norway or something which explain their accent and why they don't speak German. They speak one of these other European languages. A couple who speak great German were going to even pretend to be German.

Wow. Like pretend to be full Nazi. Yeah, full Nazi, which apparently that's like an executable offense if you're caught wearing a German uniform when you're not. So that's pretty risky. There's always going to be one dick though, is like, no, I'm like the greatest guitarist in the world. Yeah, that's so, this is incredible backstory. Yeah, I've got like 50 wives.

Yeah. It's awesome. Like, I'm like this huge rock star. Play it, oh, play us a song. Oh, no. Oh, no. I hurt my fingers. Yeah, I can't, I got sore fingers.

I hurt my fingers digging out of the prison. I mean, oh shit. Oh no. Sing us a song. Dug a hole out of prison. It's a love song, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all I'm out of for.

Someone else write this for me. So, they dug for months and by February 1944 the tunnel was nearing completion, but the German guards, like I said, knew something was going on. They searched and searched and amazingly they didn't find the entrance to Harry even when they searched room 104. In a desperate attempt to foil a potential escape, they selected 20 men whom they believed to be escape ringleaders and moved them on to another camp. However, they only succeeded in picking out four key workers. And amazingly, Roger Bushel, aka Big X, was not amongst them.

And planning for the escape continued because he was really good at pretending. He would still do activities like be in the plays or audition for stuff and look like that he was because he used to be a big escapist. So they'd be watching him a lot. It looked like he'd given up on escape. Dragon part of him was like, huh, they didn't even think it could have been me. Well, hurtful. I've escaped twice before guys.

Come on. They didn't even suspect me. Like that's just offensive. Yeah, that hurts man. Yeah. With the Germans sniffing around and closing in, Harry was completed at the end of winter. And on the night of March 24, 1944, it was decided it was go time.

So they chose that night. Why? Any, any? Well, they probably, I think they were Fitzroy supporters. They wanted to get out. They heard the Lions were making a charge at the grand final. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They made the, they made the, they made the finals. Yeah. And they're like, geez, we we gotta we gotta see the Roy boys They're in for a good chance here. They didn't know at the time. That was the last time for Troy won a premiership Yeah, but we're at the escape attempt But we're at the escape attempt. So they chose that night because they were worried that any moment that Gestapo were going to turn up and turn the camp upside down and find the tunnel, ruin everything. So they went probably a little bit earlier than they should have because it was the end

of winter, but it was still really cold. And it was a freezing moonless night and they'd waited weeks for the night to be moonless, not lit up, easy, easy to escape under the cover of darkness. Does the cold ground hold together better? About no. The winter there is so cold that had to stop digging for a while because it literally freezes solid. Oh, wow.

You can't get through it. So apart from the moonless night, the conditions weren't great as six inches of snow covered the ground. This was a double edged sword. The Germans thought no one would be stupid enough to attempt an escape in these conditions. Sure, because it's freezing. And then they'd leave tracks, I guess.

Yeah, that's another thing you got to cover up your tracks. So, um. 1100 people running through the snow. And then covering it up again. Just doing circles. I would be like, which ones we follow? There's so many sets of footprints here. This one got on a jet ski.

I mean, a snowmobile. This one flew and suffered. Quick hop on my jet ski. No. That's insane. That's really dumb. Big X is losing it. He's from the Gold Coast. That's really dumb. Oh no, Big X is losing it. He's from the Gold Coast.

It's the only way I know how. Do you know how to ride a jet ski? I'm from the Gold Coast. It's in my blood. That's how I got to school, okay? That's how I got out of the womb. So they're like, no one would attempt an escape, not knowing that 200 men were preparing to do just that.

Wow. So the first to go down. No women, huh? What is this, a comedy club? 200 men, no women. And none of the men looked around and thought, hmm, this seems a bit off. Classic. Let's invite some women.

No, no. Shut up. Two hundred men, no women. And none of the men looked around and thought, hmm, this seems a bit off. Classic. Let's invite some women. No, no. Shut up. Let's invite some women, you know, because we have to. He's two hundred on the list.

Back of the line, mate. Back of the line. Fucking here we go. Jesus Christ. The first to go down the long tunnel and pop up the other side was 27-year-old British bomber pilot Leslie George Ball, AKA Johnny Bull. Right. Leslie John Bull.

Leslie John? Leslie George. George. For some reason he's known as Johnny Bull. Johnny Bull is great. Which is so sick. That's a fantastic name. Yep.

And he's the first to pop up- they literally haven't even tested the- he's going to go up, like open the roof, I guess, or the exit. Yeah. Into the forest, see where he is and then go for it. So they haven't even really like opened the exit. You mean he's going to charge like a, I don't know. Cool. Yeah, like a panther or something. Yeah.

They should call him Johnny Panther. Yeah, that'd be cooler. That's way cooler. That is actually sick. Johnny Panther. That's amazing. That's way cooler. That is actually sick. Johnny Panther. That's amazing. That was pretty cool.

So Johnny Panther traversed the tiny 100 meter long tunnel via the wheelie system, which they used for dirt, but then they were on, they were literally pulling themselves along. So on like a little mining cart type thing, which is really cool. But it's like claustrophobic as all hell in there. Yeah. It would take, and it would take minutes to get from one side to the other. He popped up the other side and to his dismay, looked around and found, there'd been a miscalculation. The tunnel was a few feet short of the coverage of the forest.

So they're sort of between the fence and the forest just out in the open. But they're not, yeah. Yeah. And they're like, fuck. This meant to get to cover, they had to get up and run to the trees. So what does he do? Does he let the others know? Or is everyone gonna discover that one by one?

Oh, I'm imagining that like there are a few of them are like sort of standing there and he's whispering, oh, shit boys. Yeah, send it back down the line. Maybe they have one of those cannon string sort of systems. Yeah, they loved a bit of can. Yeah. Loved a bit of can.

They loved a bit of can. They loved a bit of can. Loved a bit of can. Yeah, I call myself a bit of a can man. Johnny Bull? Johnny Panther to you. They call me Hans. I'm a bit of a can man. Honestly, I can't wait for the Patreon

section because I think I've thought of the game we're playing. So they knew. So there's these guard towers Honestly, I can't wait for the Patreon section because I think I've thought of a game we're playing. Love it. So they knew, so there's these guard towers everywhere, but they face into the camp to make sure people aren't escaping. Sorry. Crap.

Thought of Hines again. You're very good at it, Matt. That's my skill. I'm there in the camp giving everyone nicknames. Honestly, when you've got to have like code names, that's my skill. I'm there in the camp giving everyone nicknames. Honestly, when you've got to have like code names, that's actually useful. Otherwise, there's two people called Big X. That's confusing.

Yeah, not good. Come on. One could have been Little X at least. Oh, absolutely Little X. Yeah, classic. One's Big X, one's Capital X. That's good, yeah. It's an option.

Grande X. Little Nas X. Little Nas X. There we go. So we could have we could have 200 X's with variations. Absolutely. It's important. DMX.

DMX. Exhibit. Charlie XEX. Yeah. Dr. X. Oh, actually. X-Avier. Oh. Dr. X-Avier. So sorry, David. And that was Doctor X. Oh. Action man. X-Avier.

Oh. Doctor X-Avier. So sorry, Davy. And that was Professor X, I think. Professor X. Yeah, you're robbing him of his qualifications. Mr. X. Mr. X.

When I met him, he had studied. Triple X. So the guard towers look in, but they also, they knew guards patrolled around the perimeter fence. So they had, they had to time their runs around this. So you'd see the guard coming. They go past you like, all right, it won't be back for 10 minutes or so. Right.

Let's run to the forest. Cool. A small piece of string coming out of the hole was pulled when the coast was clear. So you're in the, you're in the tunnel still, the guy before you pulls the string, you go, all right, I'm going to run for it now. And one of one joke had it tied around his finger said This is gonna be so great. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. It's all men as well. There's guys farting into the pub.

Hey, watch this, watch this. This is really... Daryl! To avoid being seen by the sentries, the escapes were reduced to about 10 per hour rather than one every minute, so 60 per hour that they'd planned for. Wow. Daryl, Summers, Summoner Man, Taiman, Should. Should, shoulda, coulda, woulda.

Wood, tree man. Logger, a log in, AOL. That's good. Sock you there. OK. They call me AOL. Because I did a fart once. They call me AOL. Because I did a fart once. That explains itself really. You can reverse engineer that yourself.

I genuinely thought that you were just going to go full circle. Log, summer log, chocolate, Daryl. Daryl Lee. And we're here. And we're here. We're calling you Darrell. That's right. My name is Darrell, but they call me Darrell. Double R. So they've already sort of slowed down the pace as to what they'd hoped for.

A further delay was accidentally caused by the escapers comrades in the RAF. That's the Brits bombing the area resulting in the electricity being cut in the camp, which is something that they did every night, I guess to turn the lights out so they're not a target. This meant there was no lighting in the tunnel. So they had to wait for the power to resume before more men started going out. So that was an hour long delay. Wow.

Where? Stress. Cause they were like, we could risk it and go in the dark, but like one, you bumped the wrong bit of the tunnel and it collapses. Right. So it's like, let's wait for the power to go back on so we can see what we're doing down there. Jesus, smart.

Yeah. The patience. Like you would, I'd be like, oh, we're doing down there. Jesus, smart. Yeah. The patience. I'd be like, oh, fuck it, let's just go for it. Yeah. And here's one guy to panic like that. So they're all going to have that poise under pressure. Yeah.

Honestly, even before when he's like, yeah, so they'd empty out the sand a little bit by a little bit. I was like, fuck that. Like, I'm already out. I'm not. I'm just got no patience. You're full of bullets in your back having charged the gate. 100%. Like I'm so impatient and I just don't, I have no future planning.

Like I'm just like, oh fuck it, who cares? She's like, watch this and you just start trying to run through the gate. And you make it because I haven't put any thought into the gate at all. Oh shit, she's just gone for it. Wait, she's gone. No one's ever tried the front door before She's gone Hey, at least use the tunnel Jesus respect come on

Mates that would go down there and that'd be there for like four hours and then you go Oh, how far did you dig? Nah, but I put some shelves That little really Oh, how far did you dig? Nah, but I put some shelves in that little, that little. It's actually really nice now. It's actually a really nice place to hang out. Yeah, yeah. So you gotta be distracted. It's just a man cave now.

You can sit down there now. Who got Fox footy? So yeah, the boys had a win, so I watched that obviously. I shaved J.F. Love's T.C. into the corner. I invented television. Mate, you were meant to dig a hole. Oh, I knew I was going to hit something. Yes, that's right.

I'll get on that tomorrow. So in total, 76 men crawled to freedom. 76 got out of the hole until it all abruptly came to a halt at 4.55am when one of the prisoners, number 77 abruptly came to a halt at 4.55 a.m. when one of the prisoners, number 77, was spotted by a German guard on the way out. No! On the way out. Oh, shit.

Those already in the trees began running. So they're all waiting for each other. It's not like- Some of them are. I think the system is you run out and then you're on the string. You help the next guy get out. Yes. Then you go-

So it was probably the string guy who fucked it then. Hey, come out now! Oh, shit! No, no, no! Yeah. Yeah, then you go. So it was probably the string guy fucked it then hey come out now Oh shit. No, no, no. Yeah Yeah, well some of them were sort of going in teams or in groups Yeah, that's right for your group Some people like solo bad asses and others are like but it's not 76 of them waiting in the bushes. No, yeah So those already in the trees at this point began running whilst New Zealand squadron leader Leonard Henry Trent, who was later awarded a Victoria Cross for bravery during the war, so he's a World War badass.

He had just reached the tree line and he stood up and surrendered. Because you know what? German guards spotted him with a machine gun. They didn't shoot. Yeah, he's gone. Oh, I think the... I heard somewhere that maybe he shot into the air to alert the other German guards. Something's happening over here. I think the- I heard somewhere that maybe he shot into the air to alert the other German guards. Something's happening over here. So the escape attempt was over, but the Germans still had no idea where the tunnel started.

They've just seen this hole in the ground pop out of nowhere. But they would be able to figure it out, right? I reckon I know how they could. They go in that tunnel. Yeah, but wouldn't they just- Dynamite it? Yeah. Yeah, that's true, but maybe they want to figure it out, right?

Yeah. But you could dynamite along. See what you chuck dynamite in, see where that goes. Wow. See where it goes. Well, all hell break loose is there were still men inside the tunnel. Yeah. They're hearing all the commotion and they're like, back it up, back it up, retreat, retreat, retreat.

And they were still in their costumes and civilian disguises, and they frantically changed out of them and burned evidence like forged documents and stuff. Sheesh. And like the guy that's in the fake Nazi uniforms like, take that off because if you get seen in it, you're going to get shot. Unless they believe you. I'm actually one of you! Oh, okay. All right then.

I don't remember seeing you on training day. Oh. Great to meet you. Oh, you knew. Yes. You're in Staliger 13. You You would have definitely gotten away with it. Yes. Still on the lips German, isn't it?

He does so much lip work when he's German. Yes. I am a Nazi. That is true. You just blow a lot of kisses. I'm one of you. Yes. I'm one of us.

It's like Teppi Lipua but... I'm a Nazi, that is true. You just blow a lot of kisses. I'm one of you, yes, I'm one of us. It's like Pepe Lepure but German. Yeah. I'm one of you. So despite searching the huts, including 104 with dogs, the Germans couldn't find the entrance until one of them did what you said, Matt. They crawled backwards down the hole and started banging on the other side when he got there until they worked out, shit, I think he's under the boiler. And that's the only way they found the entrance.

It was so well hidden. Wow. He's on the other side banging going, let me out, let me out. By this discovery. The oven's talking. The oven's knocking on it. Am I losing my mind? What's going on?

This is a bloody magic pudding or something. Someone's rubbing it. Waiting for a genie. I want these three wishes. First one's going to be to fix these burns. And then I've still got two wishes. So by the discovery, the first escapists had been on the run for several hours. Wow. So they had a good head start, but unfortunately it was the coldest March in that area for

30 years. There was lots of snow and many of the men actually got frostbite. Shit. But let's start with some good news. Remember Sergeant Peter Bergsland, the Norwegian orienteer champion? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, he was- Money's on him to do well.

He was Escapade number 43. So he doesn't have the biggest head start. And among the 76, I should say, who escaped through the tunnel and he teamed up with fellow Norwegian Escapade number 44,ens Muehler. According to PBS, Bergsland, the Orient area, was wearing a civilian suit he had made himself from a Royal Marine uniform with an RAF overcoat slightly altered with brown leather sewn over the buttons, a black RAF tie and no hat. Very important. If you're going to go through things people aren't wearing, you'd be here all day.

Yeah. What else is anywhere in a bow tie? Underwear. Who bearings? He's not wearing hook earrings. He's not wearing a scrunchie. He's not wearing a slap band, that's for sure. He's not wearing 15 angles bangles on his left arm.

He is not wearing a 90s choker. Okay, yeah, great. Can you be sucking on one of those 90s dummies? Yeah. He's not wearing a hyper colour T-shirt. I like to think that he's friends bald. He wears a hat to hide it. And then when he was given a description, he's like, yes, I was wearing a suit and I had little leathers over the buttons.

No hat. No hat, no need. Didn't have to. Didn't have to. No need for it. I still have hair. Warm out part of hair. Nice and toasty up the right head. Yeah, I was using nature's hat.

Yeah. I mean, it's winter, mate. What are you protecting yourself from? The sun's not out. A little bit of sass in there. That's what it was. He also carried a small suitcase. I'm size number 44 and I'm 43.

He carried a small suitcase which had been sent from Norway. In it were Norwegian and German. And he was wearing a hat. And he was wearing a hat. And he was wearing a hat. And he was wearing a hat. And he was wearing a hat. He also carried a small suitcase. Prize number 44 and I'm 43. He carried a small suitcase which had been sent from Norway. In it were Norwegian toothpaste and soap, sandwiches, 163 Reich marks given to him by the escape committee. So they also had to get a bit of money so they could survive.

True, yeah, yeah. They were travelling under the guise of Norwegian electricians from a labour camp in Frankfurt and caught the 204 train to Frankfurt. The journey there was uneventful. According to PBS, they arrived at Frankfurt at six in the morning and caught a connecting train to the city of Kirsten at eight a.m. They had a beer in the station cafe. While they were sipping, the first inspection took place. A wandering German sergeant of the military police approached them. He looked at the cheerful, fresh-faced young man who spoke excellent German with a Norwegian accent, gave their papers a cursory examination, touched his cap. He was wearing a hat and departed.

Touched his cap, was in his pocket. Just making sure it was there, he thought he might have dropped it. Having- Still got it. Wallet, keys, phone, hat. Give it a little tap. Tap the hat. Full up. That's just the thing we do. In Norway.

So having passed the first test, Bergsland and Mueller clinked their beer mugs, smiled and drank up. Man, that would have felt good. Far out, yeah. They then caught another train to the port city of Stetten and wandered around the city for the day, visiting a cinema and another beer hall. Wow. It really feels like life inside the prison is freer than life outside. You know, they're coming by.

Hey, you are allowed to be here. Yeah, I'm just having a fucking beer, mate. Constantly getting checks, especially after the news had come out. Hey, 200 prisoners tried to escape last night. Be on the lookout. But only 74 made it. So. Yeah, so chances are it's not you. They then found some Swedish sailors who agreed to smuggle them onto their ship and then made it to the safety of Gothenburg. There they enter the British consulate who arranged travel by train to Stockholm, where they were flown to Scotland.

From there, they were sent by train to London and shortly afterwards to Little Norway, which is a place in Canada where they're from. So that's two home runs. Whoa. Whoa. So they're from Canada. Originally Norwegian. Right. Long way, long way around. What around the world, Jimmy? They're in Stockholm. Why are they, they're pretty close there.

Yeah. Well, then they went back to the UK because they were part of the Air Force, of course. They had to go back to work. Yeah. Oh, I can't be late. I had to go back to work. Yeah, that's it. Oh, I can't be late. I've got a night. I am sorry boys, but the boss wants you. They want you in. So that's two home runs, unfortunately, of the 76 who got out through the tunnel. They were two of only three.

Oh, she actually got back to allied territory. The other one, Bram van der Stok. Oh, yeah, our Dutch flying ace. It was I wanted to be a doctor He had a gift for languages and due to his aptitude for escaping He was assigned number 20 to go through the tunnel and he traveled alone He's a lone wolf. I had money on Johnny Bull. Oh, yeah Sorry, man the pan the pants man

Trezeguing you are actually incredible the leggy Rhonda birchmore birch birch tree Monkeys in a tree Jim Jim. Jim. Banana boy. George of the jungle. George. Oh, damn it. That's my real name. His middle name was George. He had a skater. Guys, please, I just want to nickname. Yeah, George. Can I just be like Bluey or something?

No, no, no. Let me work on this. We gotta get there. We gotta get there. So he looked. And we've arrived. George. So Bram Vanderstock looked like any other civilian, but he was wearing an Australian

Air Force overcoat and a converted naval jacket and trousers, RAF shoes and a beret. So he was wearing a hat. It sounds like a real mismatch. Mishmash. Mishmash. What am I trying to say there? You're doing a bit of a mishmash of words there. You're trying to say mismatch and mishmash.

Yeah, I was trying to say mishmash. Yeah. But it was coming out as mishmash. Yeah. Mishmash. He did the mish. He did the mishmash. So, Bram Van der Stok made it to the train station and boarded a train, seeing eight other escaped prisoners. But of course, they had to play it cool and pretend he didn't know them. Hmm.

So they've all got their own cover stories. Yep. The escape was soon discovered and his papers were checked four times, but thankfully the forgeries were really good. Wow. And his story of being a Dutchman checked out because of course he was Dutch. Yes. Great. Yeah, I think the better your language and all those sort of things. Yeah.

So it makes sense that the non-English speakers. It really favored the Europeans. Yeah, for sure. Great. Yeah, I think the better your language and all those sort of things. So it makes sense that the non-English speakers. It really favoured the Europeans, yeah, for sure. Yeah. He travelled through Germany to the Netherlands where he met up with a man whose name he had been given as part of the resistance. Which, like, that's such a role the Dices are in, like, literally knocking on a door being like, Hi, I'm part of the resistance. Yes. Yeah.

And the guy actually did take him in. Fanderstock was then given new identity papers and then he cycled to a Belgian safe house for the Belgian resistance, had to trust another group of people. It's also the guy getting the knock on the door, trusting him that he's not. Yeah, exactly. He could be an undercover Nazi. For sure. Undercover Nazi coming to Channel 9.

That is definitely a Channel 7 show. There's no way. Flowing from border force or whatever that show's called. Yeah. So arriving there, he was given the paperwork of a Belgian and then traveled by train via Brussels and then Paris to Toulouse in France, where the French resistance put him in contact with two American lieutenants, two other RAF pilots, a French officer and a Russian, and he took the group across the Pyrenees

to Spain. Walk into a bar. Such an odd mix, isn't it? He finally reached British Empire territory once again by arriving in Gibraltar on the 8th of July 1944, three months after escaping. He was back in England within a few days, the third to make a home run. And again, sadly, the third and final. Wow. But it's such a journey. And like at any point he could have been discovered, he changed identity like three times, trusting all these people, this network of resistance. This, the war's almost finished, hey?

Yeah. We're getting to the end. Getting towards the end. What? How many more months until it finished? What is it? A bit over a year? So close to like, yeah. So 12 months later, the war ended.

And that, yeah, that like Dan was saying before, right? That was struggling by the end of it. It was all falling apart for the Nazis last 12 months, right? So it's going to be interesting to see how they deal with the ones that they catch. Yeah, because they might have still, a bunch they might have still made it out alive. Yeah. Didn't one of them he mentioned before got- Who later got a Victoria Cross. Is that, that's yeah, Purple Heart's the one you have to die for, right? Victoria Cross, made it sound like he lived.

The Australian version of, isn't it? Yeah, so the Victoria Cross, you made it sound like you lived. The Australian version of isn't it? Yeah, so the Victoria Cross is like for Empire forces, the British etc. But, uh, Purple Heart, that's America right? It's the same, it's the same. That's embarrassing. I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's usually valor under fire, that kind of stuff.

Like bravest of the brave sort of acts. And it's worth like, like I think it's priceless, but if you are going to put a money value on it, I think that somebody had did sell one for like millions. Really? Millions and millions of dollars. So yeah, there's that British, so that Aussie billionaire who's bought all of them. Really? And then now they're in the Canberra War Museum.

Yeah. I think he paid about two and a half mil. Really? Yeah. Wild. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Wild. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's crazy. I don't know if you would sell it.

Like if you earned it. Yeah. Or the family. I mean, if your family needs the cash, what are you going to do? No, I'm going to struggle to put food on the table because I've got this little piece of metal. But I need to walk down the street on Anzac Day and show it off. But I don't even think that you would take it out for Anzac Day, would you?

Like you would still. I don't know, yeah. Maybe. Like you'd keep it at home. I don't know. It's worth two and a half million dollars, that's all. Yeah. It also seems like the kind of thing, like people who win those aren't usually braggadocious

types, are they? Yeah. Or maybe they are. No, typically no. A lot of them are. They are also awarded posthumously. Yes. Kerry Stokes is the prominent Australian collector of VCs.

Wow. He owns Channel 7, right? Are you sure? Yeah, he's a Channel 7 guy. He's the guy that commissioned undercover Nazis. Yeah, seven mate. I think it's more common that people who know Victoria Cross awardees don't know they have it. Right.

Like Jeremy Clarkson's father-in-law has one and Jeremy Clarkson never knew. Yeah, right. Because he'd never mentioned it. You found out before Jeremy Clarkson. Yeah. That's why. I found out and I said- Imagine he's finding out now.

I tweeted him. I said, hey, Clarko. Big news. Clarko. Yeah, Clarko. All right, you need to be on the case to give him a new nickname. You're not having Clarko? Clarko, Clarko Braba.

Gumby, Gumbo, Gum, Gummi, Toothless, Tooth Fairy, Fairy Boy, Fairy Boy. Perfect. No notes. Yeah, it's, what I've got, owing to its status, the VC is always the first decoration worn in a row of medals and is the first set of post-anominal letters used to indicate any decoration or order. So you can get any other dedication from the Queen or the King, but you'll always be Matt Stewart VC.

Even before sir. Yeah. Before. Oh, I guess sir comes first. I guess sir, Matt Stewart, comma VC. Yeah. I don't have those as you know, I knocked them back. Mainly because I didn't offer.

I was getting in first. That's a note from me. Don't call me. Yeah. I'll call you. I wouldn't accept anyway. Have I gone to war? Well, no. That's a note from me. Don't call me. Yeah. I'll call you. I wouldn't accept anyway. Have I gone to war?

Well, no. So three made it home. Everyone else sadly was recaptured. Some quickly, others were on the run for a bit and it made it across Germany like quite a long way. But within two weeks, all 73 others were recaptured. Wow. Let's check in with a few of them now.

James Katnack, the Australian pilot and his crew of four made it to Berlin before changing trains to Hamburg, which they also reached successfully only to be caught on the next leg of their rail journey from Hamburg to the naval town of Flensburg on the Danish border. Nearing the border, suspicious policemen insisted on carefully examining their papers, checking their briefcases, which contained newspapers and escape rations. Close inspection of their clothing revealed they were wearing altered great coats. Although the four escapers had split up pretending to be traveling individually, they were all in the same railway carriage and more policemen arrived and closely examined every passenger,

soon arresting all four suspects. The escapers were taken to Flensburg Prison and then handed over to the Gestapo. Adolf Hitler was told of the escape attempt and was furious, pun intended. His initial order was that all recaptured 73 escapades should be immediately shot, but it was argued to him that this could lead to reprisals for German prisoners of war in British hands. And eventually he ordered that 50 of them to be executed. Fifty? Oh. What a weird negotiation.

Yeah. All right. We'll let 21 of them live or whatever. Yeah. Weird. Yeah. Is that what happened? Oh, sorry. The General Arthur Niebhornnebby was given the task of selecting the 50 men at random. He was a terrible human being involved in the Holocaust, but he himself was executed a year later for his involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler with a bomb known as Operation Valkyrie.

Oh, right. Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise movie. Yeah. It starts in the cinema. It starts in German and then like a sort of wash comes over the screen or something and we start hearing it in his American accent. The movie. Yeah, so because he obviously wasn't going to do a German accent, I guess. So they're like, they start in German briefly and then it's sort of like, you know, the

effect is now you're just hearing it through the some sort of a translator. Or translate for you. Yeah. You through the some sort of a translate. Translate for you. Yeah. You're a better actor than Tom Cruise. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you could say, oh, you could shine. You could shine.

Do they call that German face? Yeah. Yeah. That's fantastic. You can shine if you want. Yes, yes, yes. James Kadenak, the Australian of, was one of those 50, but sadly, I'm really sad to say he was murdered.

Wow. This is what happened to all of them. In the movie, The Great Escape, they sort of all machine gun them all down. But really what they did is they split them up into groups of one or two. And then the Gestapo often would pull the car over and tell them, this is what happened to James K. Nak, stretch your legs before a big drive or go take a piss in that field. And whilst their back was turned, shot them in the back. Wow.

And then cremated them. And it was the same for his three accomplices. And that's what the fate of most of the 50. Yeah. Is that more humane? I don't know. That's crazy. Because they're obviously trying to sell the story that they tried to escape again. Yeah. That is exactly what they said. They said, these escapists tried to escape. We had no choice, but just shoot it. And it's like, and this happened exactly 50 times. So come on, guys. Also captured and later murdered were head forger Tim Wallen Lithuanian footballer Romulatus Markencus and Canadian Spitfire pilot slash hard-ass a Henry Berland

The first two had made good ground before being captured by the Gestapo But Canadian Henry Berland and his group did not make a great distance before the alert was raised and were tracked down quite quickly Roger Bushel a hair Big X also murdered. Wow. Bushels was told he was one of, he'd already done it. This is strike three. This is strike three for him. Oh, the choir is really struggling now though, cause he had a beautiful baritone.

Yeah. Exactly. He was still auditioning for staff. I know, I've got a choir practice. Why would I escape? I love it here. I love it. One of the famous scenes from the movie that I love it here. I love it.

One of the famous scenes from the movie that I think of is, I think it's Steve McQueen on a motorbike trying to jump a barbed wire fence. Yes, there were no motorbikes involved. What? Apparently, Steve McQueen insisted on riding a motorbike in the movie and nearly all of it except when he jumps the barbed wire fence is him. Yeah, right. That's a stunt driver, I believe.

And it's actually rated as one of the greatest stunts in Hollywood history. Yeah, I mean, it's an amazing scene. So it feels funny for him to insist on it. But he's a great motorcycle rider, apparently. So yeah, it was a great scene. I don't know. It is a great scene. Don't get me wrong. But I don't know if you're allowed to do a historic movie.

Yeah. And then just go, yeah, also I jump it on a motorbike. Yes, fully agree. It's like, this is already a pretty epic story. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. I mean. It uses like a modern Yamaha or something. It's like a...

And that motorbike's like on display in a museum somewhere, yeah. Because, because genuinely that motorbike is iconic. Yeah. To this story. Yeah. You think that's one of the big things, isn't it? Yeah. Throwing the ball against the wall on the motorbike, probably the two most famous visuals. Yeah.

And you reckon neither of them happened. Definitely not the motorbike. The ball's not believable. Yeah. Well, they had so many recreational things in the camp. Could have been Hitler's. Could have been the softball. It's Hitler's softball.

Could have been Hitler's missing softball. You just, I just, I don't think you're, it's like Oppenheimer and they're like, oh yeah, so we invented the atom bomb, but also I want to ride it on a motorcycle. But also that, that big meeting, yeah, I get there via parachute. I get, I come through the ceiling. I let it out and I just go, all right, everyone. I land, I let the parachute off and I walk straight into the building. Don't break strides. I insist. I want to be in Japan at the time and I'll put sunglasses on and I'll walk away

from it as it's going on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. So 50 of them were shot. This was a clear violation of the Geneva Convention, by the way, that states POW should not be shot for attempting to escape. But you know, by this point of the war, Germany committed so many atrocities. The surviving 23 were held in the custody of the Gestapo before being sent off to other camps. 17 were returned to Stlug Luft 3,

but after this I believe they were ordered not to try and escape anymore because it's like, well you tried, 50 of our best guys just got shot. Oh, so they were ordered from the inside? From the inside, yeah. Oh, not the Germans. The Nazis again. Alright, now we should have said this.

I really have to put my foot down now. Probably should have said this first, I'm right, but yes. Absolutely not on anymore. Sorry. Absolutely not on. It is, I'm sorry, but I have to put my foot down. That's the German defense. The German defense.

You killed, you murdered 50 of our people. We done a lot worse stuff than that. I'm sorry. That's minimal to what we did. You're saying we is the Nazi's. So you see that as a we. Interesting. Like I feel like that they can't,

that's not a defense. You can't go, nah, I've done worse than that. Yeah. That's not a good thing to say. You robbed a bank. I've murdered people. I've done worse shit than that. Yeah. That's not a good thing to say. You robbed a bank. I've murdered people. Yeah, I've shot people in the back.

That's nothing. If you knew the other stuff, I don't know, would you like to listen? It doesn't make sense. What do you reckon about that though? Would you prefer, if you're caught, would you prefer to be lined up against the wall knowing you're about to be executed? Or would you prefer to be like, hey, you can stop there, I have a piss. Yeah, I'd prefer to not know.

To not know, yeah. I don't know. I don't want to get shot. Yeah. Is that an option? Is that? Oh yeah. Oh, sorry, let me finish. Third option, they just send you back first class. Yeah, I'd probably do the, I'd probably do third option.

Yeah. Wait, I'm gonna wait and see if there's a fourth option, because we've learned the hard way. Is it? Fourth option, yeah, there is. You stay. But once I say it, you can't take one the hard way. Is it? Fourth option, yeah there is. You stay in the camp. Once I say it, you can't take one of the first three options. Okay, yeah that's fine.

Fourth option is you're shot in the back in first class. Do I get a meal and can I eat first and watch a movie and try to lie down there? Yeah, yeah. All right, that's all right. There's a fifth option. Yeah. You have to stay in the camp.

Yeah. And you get lead in the play. Oh, yeah. So I'm alive and I'm the lead. That's not really a choice, is it? And then they shoot you off just before you go on. Before the second encore. Can you fully believe all the way up until dying that you're a star? Yeah. Oh, yeah, I'd take that. Starlight 13 or whatever.

Is that what it's called? Starlight. No. So you're looking star. Oh yeah, I'd take that. Starlight 13 or whatever. Is that what it's called? Starlight 13. No! What? So you're looking at option five. So 23... Those were just waiting patiently. I guess option five, fuck it.

I'm trying to get this finished. Two and a half hours. So, 23 survived, 17 were returned to Starlug, looked for 3. Four were sent to Saxonhausen concentration camp and two to Colditz Castle that we've reported on before. Oh yeah. I'm pleased to report that many of them lived very long lives after the war. Jack Harrison, one of the 200 men, died in 2010 at the age of 97.

Jack Lyon, number 79 on the roster, so he didn't quite get out, which is one of the reasons that he may have survived. He celebrated his 100th birthday in 2017. In New Zealand? Is that where you said he was from? I'm not sure where Jack Lyon's from. But let's say New Zealand. Paul Royal also lived to 101.

Dick Churchill was the last surviving of the 76 escapees before his death in 2019, age 99. He was discovered after hiding in a hayloft. And in a 2014 interview at the age of 94, he said he was fairly certain he had been spared execution because his captors thought he might be related to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Yeah. Which he was not.

But one of the other survivors, remember, was a very distant relative of Winston Churchill, which he was not. But one of the other survivors, remember, was a very distant relative of Winston Churchill. That was Major Johnny Dodge, the Artful Dodger. The big boy. He was Churchill's distant cousin. He escaped but was recaptured that same day and was sent, he was one of the guys sent to Saxon house and concentration camp. Awful place to go. With three other great escapers, including Flight Lieutenant Sydney Douse and Bertram Arthur Jimmy James. An awful place to be sent. They were housed with other political prisoners, including previous report topic, Mad Jack Churchill.

Whoa. Who's the guy that fought with bagpipes and a sword. Right. Douse and James almost immediately began another tunnel, which was kept secret from all non-British personnel. This was completed and used on the night of the 23rd of September 1944 when Dodge, James, Day Douse and Jack Churchill escaped.

Dodge who travelled alone was on the run for over a month and after receiving help from some French slave labourers was arrested by a German farmer and sadly returned to Saxonhausen. He with the other four who had been recaptured were placed in solitary confinement and chained to the floor in what were called the death cells of the camp. Wow. Things were looking pretty grim for him until February 1945. He was released from solitary and taken to Berlin, where he was asked by two German officials to act as a peace envoy to the British government with an offer of German, Germany surrendered to the Western envoy to the British government with an offer of Germany surrender to the Western allies of the British and Americans.

Basically at this point, all the Germans knew it was lost. A few of the senior people were like, like Hitler was never going to give up or quietly being like, hey, maybe we could get someone else to give up on our behalf. Dodge was asked to undertake this because of his distant relationship to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He returned to Britain via Dresden surviving the horrific firebombing of the city there. So this guy's got nine lives. He actually met Prime Minister Churchill and the US ambassador to Britain, John Gilbert, one aunt on the 6th of May 1945. Dodge explained his adventures and the German peace proposal and history records the offer was not accepted.

The first thing he said to Churchill was, how do the Roy boys do? Let me know! And did Winston say they got the job done? They got it done. They're going to do it many more times over the next decade. I've got a good feeling. I think they're about to start a dynasty. So the artful Dodger made it home. Wow.

Partly because you know of this distant relationship to Winston Churchill, but he escaped so many times. Yeah, I will be Albany's cousin 100%. Yeah, I know that guy. I know him personally. Family guy. He used to see him at Christmas all the time. Have you got his number in your phone? Huh? No. Let me think! 04.

Soon after the war, when Germany lost, you didn't know, British Royal Air Force Service police detective Wilfrid Bowes headed a 15-person task force charged with finding those in the Gestapo responsible for the murders of the 50 escaped guys. They found some of the men had already died, but several former Gestapo and military personnel were convicted of war crimes. Wow. So some of them did face justice. Good. Just finally, the great escape was first immortalized by Australian writer and

journalist Paul Brickell, who was at Starlog Luft 3. Initially, he'd been high up the list to escape. When he first went down to help with digging, he suffered from claustrophobia and he was ruled out. They were like, sorry, mate, you're fit and able and everything, but if you have a panic attack on the night and mess it up for everyone else, we can't take that risk. He probably would have had to accept that. Yeah.

But he did help with the planning and he wrote a book called The Great Escape in 1950. It was a bestseller and like we said, was adapted for the 1963 film The Great Escape starring Steve McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough as Big X. You know, here's the thing. If I, if that happened to me, right, and I'm writing the tale about what happened, I would be putting in, my muscles were too big. Not claustrophobia. I'm not claustrophobia.

They said I was just too much of a big unit. Your shoulders are so huge, bar. You can't fit down the hole. Too much drag. Yeah. You know, I'm on my stomach, if you know what I mean. When I'm, it also, when your shirt's off, you put us to shame. Yeah, morale was down. Morale was down.

So yeah, that's what I'm putting up. Like it's not fair. Like you're the size of two of these normal guys. So it's not fair for you to take two spots. I had to wear really big oversized t-shirts so the boys didn't know how fucking ripped I was underneath. Made me feel really bad. Like they couldn't think of a cover story that would work for me.

They're like, Germans are never that ripped. You know what I mean? I was going to say I'm an Olympic swimmer. But yeah. But yeah, too buff. Too buff. I'm actually too buff. I thought I'd just stay behind, take some notes, write a book, you know?

Yeah. Get the story out there. Like a real hero. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. I think it's very brave of him to say, I freaked the fuck out. Yeah, I got down there and for the first time in my life, I had claustrophobia. Yeah. The're right. Yeah. I think it's very brave of him to say, I freaked the fuck out. Yeah, I got down there and for the first time in my life I had claustrophobia. Yeah.

The worst time. Or is he actually giving a more heroic story than what the truth was? He's like, the real thing was way worse. He was actually... I had really bad gout, kept fighting up the tunnel. The boys were like, you fucking right. No one's going after you. No one likes you, you stink.

Yeah, so I stayed back. Yeah, because I claustrophobia. No one called me stinky mcstink boy. That was, yeah, I don't even know why you would have thought that. That did not happen. That wasn't me. I didn't hear that. No, no, no. So the 1963 film in particular has gone down as a pop culture classic and is frequently

referenced by other bits of media, including The Simpsons, Reservoir Dogs, Chicken Run, Charlie's Angels, Seinfeld, Red Wharf, Get Smart, Monty Python to name just a few. So one of the reasons it lives on is it's just referenced all the time. And I reckon scenes that didn't actually happen. Because I reckon the motorbike scene would be so referenced. Yes. And Bart doing the ball for sure is one of the Simpsons ones, I reckon. Yeah.

Yeah. And also Maggie during when she's trying to break out. Oh, yes. Maybe that's what I'm thinking. The pacifiers. Yes, that's right. When she's at the Iron Round School for the tops of whatever it is. Yeah. I definitely knew that song way before I ever saw the movie. I'm gonna watch it.

You will have to sit aside nearly three hours. I'm not gonna watch it. Is that with ads? Well, even more with ads. I was gonna watch it again, like, because I was like, I wanna do the research first, so I don't get clouded by that. But then I spent too long on it. So, but I'm gonna watch it probably again this weekend.

You could watch a YouTube recap. Yeah. We could do it as a movie club episode. Not three hours. Who would listen to something for three hours? Yeah. We are clocking in nearly, it goes to two hours, 50 something. And this is two hours, 49.

We are actually really close. If you turn down the volume on the movie and just listen to us it actually sinks up. That's it. Yeah. Perfect. So that's it. That's the story of the real great escape. Wow. That was a great story. It's an epic one. escape. Wow. That was a great story. It's an epic one. Mmm. Twists, turns, drama, intrigue. Farts. Farts. Romance. German accents. Sausage. Well, accents. I don't know if Germans would claim that. Vaguely European accents. Vaguely European

accents. Some pretty sport on accents. It's not offensive if you do them all at once. No, I, uh, hmm. I couldn't do what- The little lip thing is starting to make me feel weird. This is a more accurate, uh, hmm. Is it too late to ask JJ, our editor, to write down all the time codes and we get a super cut in video form of Matt's greatest journey hits. I don't think we can afford to pay for that because it's...

And, um, um, sausage. Now he's winking. Stop it. Wiener Schnitzel. Ah, Wiener Schnitzel. Stop winking. Oh, bratwurst. Oh, Bradford, oh, shower crowd. We're going to have to get a P.O. Box because now Matt's going to be getting a lot of love mail. Yeah.

From the server. And we loved your accent. Yeah, that's exactly what they're going to say. We found your accent very accurate and very sexy. Very shucksy. Very shucksy indeed. Well, we might just fade down his microphone as we say, Dane Simpson, thank you so much for joining us on this episode.

Thank you for having me. This is cool. Absolute epic. A true, true pleasure. And I imagine some of your mad yarns might be going for nearly three hours. Is that true? On your new pod, any three hour episodes coming up? There's only we do half an hour

Honestly, that's smart. That's pretty smart. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We know Joe Rogan Unfortunately, we are Terrible comparison to be made but yeah, so that's that's out now. First couple of episodes of Mad Yarns, you and Isaac. Any other gigs or anything coming up you want to tell people about? No, just look me up. Go to this website I invented called Google. Really? Just type in Dane Simpson.

It's full of full of everything that I've ever done. Well, it's the internet. It is the internet. It's a modern model. If you want to see Dane in video form, VIP Chunky's Bow Style, check out the episode of Do Go On, the Quiz Show that's on Stupid Old Channel right now. You can watch him and Marcel go head to head in a battle of the elements. And that's fun. It was a great time.

Yeah, it was a great time. I'm pulling up your website now. Interesting stuff, yeah? We usually do a live Google of the guests at the end. What a review from Matt Stierl. Okay, we've got the Kylan Show, Dane Simpson live, Friday the 11th of July. That's already in the past when this comes out. Don't worry about that one.

Yeah. Edinburgh Fringe. You gonna be in Adam Raffringe? Nah, I'm not gonna have- Let's have an old- You've probably gotta have a look at your link- What is it? You have specials that people can watch? Yeah, you can go on iview.

You can check it out. It's called Didgeridoozy. Oh, awesome. It's part of the, um, the- Live at the Malthouse, I think it's called. Yeah, great. Little series. Yeah.

Go on, watch that if you like. A bit of classic stand-up. Check it out, everyone. Yeah. But Dane, thank you so much. Thanks. Thanks for having me. This is cool. Well, that brings us to everyone's favourite section of the show, where we thank some of our fantastic Patreon supporters. If you want to be one of these, go to Patreon.com slash Jugo on Pod.

I should say we've just said goodbye to Dane. We all gave him a hug. Yeah. And it was a beautiful moment. Anybody else give him a kiss? Was that just me goodbye to Dane. We all gave him a hug. Yep. And it was a beautiful moment. Anybody else give him a kiss? Was that just me? Oh no. Aww. Did I miss my opportunity?

We've been waiting so patiently. But yes, Dane did say that he'd be up for hanging around for this section. We said, mate, you've just given us what? We said, please. Three weeks to have along that one. 400 years. Just go. We said, please. Three weeks I have along that one. Yeah, 400 years. Just go, we said. But.

Save yourself. Yeah, the Great Escape was actually pretty recent news when I started that one. It was a new movie. But yes, so Dave, do you want to explain how this section of the show works? We're taking a bit of time here to support, or say thank you to the people who support the show, I should say, at Patreon, and As well as getting some shoutouts and things that are about to give them They also get access to ad free episodes. They get four bonus episodes a month We've got our D&D campaign going on there new seasons just launched

Many reports quizzes all sorts of fun stuff there and you get access to 250 Bonus episodes in the back catalog as soon as you sign up on that level. You get to be part of the Facebook group, which is a lovely corner of the internet, hear about live shows before anyone else, get discounted tickets, and just get to know that you're making this show possible. Which is important. You're doing important work. That's right.

Some would call it charity. And we thank those charitable people. Thank you so much. Now, the first thing we do in this section of the show, is for people on the Sydney Schoenberg level or above, we do a section called the Fact Quote or Question section, which actually has a jingle, I think, or something like this. Fact Quote or Question.

She always remembers the ding. And she always remembers the sing. And in this part of the show, we read out two, three, four, sometimes this week, just the two facts, quotes or questions or brags or suggestions or really whatever people want to write. And the first one this week comes from Jason Wesner, aka, you get to give yourself a title as well, aka Official Panicker. And Jason is offering us and asking us a question.

I was hoping they were offering a panic. Okay. Well, maybe this question will lead to a panic. The question is, are there any genres that you traditionally don't like, but have one or two exceptions for? And always say, please answer the question if you can. And Jason does that saying, an example, I tend to find horror movies unappealing, but

the original Halloween is one of my favorite movies. Oh wow, that's interesting, isn't it? I would instantly jump in and think of musicals. Oh yeah. Not a big fan, but I've seen Hamilton twice and enjoyed both of those experiences. And Annie. Annie, you loved Annie? And I watch Annie the movie. Yeah, end of sentence. I Watched it. Yeah, you watched it. It was recently on do go on the movie club, which is a monthly I think we do on the patreon where we pick a film and then talk about it and it was Matt's

Choice that month a couple months ago and he chose Annie and you know, daddy wall box is a bit of fun Why do I smell what? that month, a couple months ago, and he chose Annie and, you know, Daddy Warbox was a bit of fun. Why do I smell what dog? I mean, I watched the film on double speed, of course, but I slowed it down for that bit out of respect. Why do I smell what dog? So yeah, but I really enjoyed those live experiences. So that's, I'd say a real exception for me.

I'm not a horror fan at all, but I have seen and very much enjoyed Get Out. Oh yeah. But then I was like, all right, well I've watched a horror movie. Yeah. And I don't want to venture back in. Right. I think I used to be like that, now I really like horror. Yeah.

I'm also not into it. I don't think I just didn't know how broad horror was. Totally. I thought, I'm like, I like scream and I like get out and I was talking to a horror friend and they're like, well, yeah, you like, you like horror movies. Yeah. And we sort of figured out I don't really like slasher ones where there's, it's just like an indestructible bad guy.

You know, like sequels to Halloween, sequels to Friday the 13th, stuff like that. Um, as far as I know, I haven't, I've only seen a couple of them, but yeah, I like, yeah. So that's maybe a good example. It's funny how we can't think outside the thing he said, because as I was reading, I liked genres music, but it was movies. And he, what about music genres?

Oh yeah. I used to not really be in the country, but now I quite like a country a fair bit more. Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Lee Kernigan, Kirks of course, Dolly Parton. Of course. Of course. Bloody course. Bloody course.

Yeah, and same, yeah, I don't know. I think that was, Get Out came to mind immediately, but it is good to sort of like, yeah, it's always good to like try something a bit new, especially if it comes quite well rated or people whose opinion you trust recommend it. You go, okay, I'll give that a go. Worst case scenario, you don't particularly like it. It's all right. It's not life threatening. Yeah. And you can always bail. Yeah, you can.

If you're going to halfway through, you're like, nah, I was right. I'm normally, I used to be a person who was like, well, if I started reading the book, I have to finish this book. And recently I was like, I'm 10 chapters in and I hate this. I'm going to stop. Yeah. I just stopped. But you said only had 11 chapters. I've never found out what happened. You had three pages to go. It all came together at the end. I said, I'm done. I'm done with this. Yeah. Yeah. I think I don't really like wheat beers, if that's a genre of beer. Genre, yes. And then, but I did have one of that, like I nearly never enjoyed, but I did have one

recently that I kind of enjoyed and I can't remember what it was. But generally speaking, it's just that sort of that banana-y, whatever that flavour is in a wheat beer that I find unappealing. Banana-y. But I like banana. I don't like beer, but I like that one we had in Brisbane one time. Yeah, the, it was like a passion for a gozer or ghosts or gozer. Good stuff. Thank you so much for that question. Oh, sorry. Oh, that's not important. My horror one is, I don't really like horror, but I really like the alien movies. Oh, I haven't

seen those. So I don't know why that is, but yeah, a lot of them, I guess it's like you're saying, horror, so many sub genres. I just don't like the ones where it's like torture born. Right. Yeah. It makes you feel a bit sick to watch. I watched Heretic last week. I enjoyed it a bit.

You know, no movie's perfect. I would have done it a little bit better, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Here's how I would have done a little bit better, but I enjoyed it. Here's how I would have done. And I was in the middle, he's telling a real brief version of my Monopoly episode. I'm like, I wonder if the movie writer was a listener. Like I discovered the story. But still pretty good if he'd stopped and like, I was actually listening to a podcast last night just for a bit of padding in the movie. Yeah, yeah. Thanks so much, Jason. Jason actually.

Jason Moore. What's his name? Voorhees. Voorhees. Moorehees, Moore like it. What does that mean? But Jason, I got him in the hat swap and I, those hat, those packages over there. Yeah.

I haven't opened them yet. Exciting. Can't wait to see what you got. Yeah. I sent Jason a hat. I won't say what, but he sent me two. So I'm feeling like I've been. Yeah. Anyway, probably maybe I'll think of a second one to send to Jason. The next one comes from Charlie Heybear or Heybert, AKA amateur etymologist. If I'm remembering right, I think Charlie was a Chicagoan improviser that I met when I was over there. And Charlie has a fact writing, the turkey, the bird, is named

after Turkey, the country, but in Turkish it's called a Hindi. In Hindi, it's called a Peru. Arabic calls it Greek chicken. Greece calls it a French chicken, France calls it an Indian chicken and in Malay it's a Dutch chicken. None of these places are where the wild turkey is from, which is North America. What's going on? Well, the main theory is that the English speakers were introduced to the turkey via merchants in the Ottoman Empire and thus called it the turkey hen or Turkeyfowl. Other languages may have similarly named it after the people who were importing and selling the bird being unaware

of its true origin. The many names calling it Indian are likely due to the early misconception that the New World was actually just India as Columbus himself died believing. How tragic that the poor Turkey is forever fated to bear the name of a nation that they do not call home." That is wild. I knew I knew the Turkey bit, but I didn't know that's amazing how many places call it different things. Yeah, that's I didn't know that. Yeah, that's a fun fact, dare I say. Wow. Yeah, I don't give those out too often anymore. No, you don't. That was awesome. That list of things that it's known as around the world.

Yeah. I'm here for that. Just keep going. So, this is a great fact. Thank you so much, Charlie. And thank you so much, Jason. And the next thing we like to do is shout out to a few of our great supporters.

Jess, you normally come up with a game for this? What are you thinking? I think you've been on a red hot streak of coming up with nicknames or code names here. I was gonna pull up a code name generator, but I don't think we need one. I think Dave and I could read the names and you could just smash them out. Okay. We'll go with the manual, manual method. I think so. Yeah. Old school.

Yeah. Cause if you're happy to because you know, say we're in, we're in a, a war prison. Yes. And sometimes it feels like prison. The wifi's out. Yes. And we can't access.

What? Even at the library? Yeah. Apparently it's just down and they don't know why they're working on it. And they're real. They're very sorry. They're very sorry the internet is down. The Wi-Fi. I'm hoping an extra dessert later as a compensation. Or just, there would be extra servants of Pudding. Pudding. Pudding. Pudding. Pudding. Yes, pudding. Dessert poutine. What's poutine again? Chips.

Dessert poutine. Gravy and cheese. Yeah, instead of gravy, it's chocolate. Instead of cheese, it's ice cream. That's awesome. Instead of chips, it's wifers. It's wifers. I want the leashes. Wifers. It's Wifers.

Also delicious. Dessert Poutine. I think I did not say that right. You want me to read out some names? Yeah, let's get it started. Clear your mind, clear the mind palace. OK, from Strath Downey in Victoria, thank you so much to Jamie McKinnon. Jamie McKinnon, McKinnon Hotel, hotel, bed, bedding, ding, bell, bell ringer, ringing, ringing ears, tinnitus, tinny, tin man.

Tin man. Tin man. Tin man, that sounds good. You got to stop me. I'll just keep going. Yeah, sorry. You stop me whenever you're ready. Jamie, tin man, McKinnon, thank sounds good. Oh, wow. You gotta stop me. I'll just keep going. Yeah, sorry. You just keep going. You stop me whenever.

You're ready. Jamie Tin Man McKinnon, thank you so much. Thank you. Tin Man McKinnon, that just works. That's incredible. So next up, from address unknown, so we can only assume deep within the fortress of the moles. Okay.

Okay. Thank you to Abby. Abby, nunnery, none, nothing, zip, zippo, lighter, fire, flame, flamey, flame trees, trees, back to trees, None. Nothing. Zip. Zippo. Lighter. Fire. Flame. Flamy. Flame trees. Trees. Back to trees. Back to trees. Wood. Woody. Toy Story. Buzz Lightyear. Buzz. To infinity and beyond. Beyond. Yon. Yon. Tripod. Stop. Tripod. Abby aka Tripod is a sweet name.

It's pretty good. To infinity and beyond. Yon. sweet name. Pretty great. That's pretty good. To infinity and beyond. Yon. Yon. That's great. And Yon's name is Simon. Four. Crazy.

I mean, imagine. Crazy. Abby Simon. I'd like to thank now from Faram in Great Britain, big shout out to Average Student. Average Student, teacher, professor. Professor. Oh, the professor. That's good. Professor's a fantastic name. Yeah, I had to ring the bell earlier there.

Yeah. Professor. The professor. Yeah, so good. Average student, OK, the prof. Thank you so much. Really good. Next up from Bradford, also in the UK, Kerry L. Kerry L. M. N. O. P. Urine. Rhine. Rh rhino, rhinoceros, russ, Russell Crowe, rusty. Rusty.

Rusty. When you, I thought you were going to just go to the alphabet. M N O P Q U, urine. I was like, okay, we're off. We're out. He got out. Oh, Kerry Rusty L. That's good stuff.

I'd like to thank now from Mount Nasura in Western Australia, it's Anthony or Anthony? Probably Anthony Sims. Anthony Sims. Sims City, Godzilla in the Sim City, Zilla, Stephen Zilla, Saints, Saint Kilda, Kilda, Kilda man, murderer, mass murderer, mass church, priest, priestly, Jason priestly, 90210, Beverly Hills, Hills, Hills have eyes, eyes, piercing, Cyclops. Cyclops! Actually, I wasn't looking at you man, I was looking at Dave and we yelled at the same time.

Cyclops is really good. Because the priest, I was like, that's good, but then you went chasing Priestley, 902, and okay, we're back on here. We're still on the cycle. Cyclops. Very good. That is great stuff. Anthony, Cyclops Sims.

Next up, from Rochester in New York in the US, it is a big thank you to Emma Pratt. Emma Pratt, Dill, Dill Pickle. Pickle. Pick. Pick me. Mean Girls. Girls. Girly. Girl. Lady. Lady in the Tramp. Tramp. Chaplin. Chap. That's pretty good.

Chappy. Chapstick. Lips. Dried lips. Dry desert. Sand. Sandy. Chappy chapstick lips, dried lips, dry desert sand, sandy sand, June's June, July, August, September, Bilbo Bill passing legislation. Slation slate, clean slate, the cleaner. Yeah, cleaner. The cleaner. Jesus Christ. The cleaner. that was incredible to watch.

Passing legislation. Emma the cleaner pratt. That's so great. Man, that's good. I like to think from Somerville in Victoria, thank you to Dean Williams. Dean Williams, Williams, Prince Harry, Harry Houdini, Dini, Dinosaur, Soaring Through the Skies, the Jet Star, the Star- Shooting Star, Shooting Gun, Machine Gun, the Machine- Oh stop.

The Machine. The Machine's pretty good. Dean the Machine Williams. Oh I know him, yeah that's very good. I was about to go to the Printing Press. I think maybe we sucked it at a good time. Your nickname is The Printing Press. That's great.

Penultimate is from Brisbane in Queensland, Ashley Hall. Ashley Hall, long, narrow, row, rower, awesome, foursome, some, a few, few good men, truth, handle the truth, handle door knob, the knob. Stop. No. Oh, no. Ashley the knob hole.

I'm trying to get door knob, but the knob, okay, keep going. The knob, the knobla, the cobbla, shoemaker. Cobbla. The cobbla, okay. You don't want the knobla? Ashley the cobbla hole, that's make. Cobbler. You don't want the nobbler? Actually, the cobbler haul, that's great. That's good.

That's great. Actually, I tried to get you the nobbler. Is this a muscle that the more you use it, the better it gets? It's like, is it use it or lose it or you're wringing out as much as you can? I think you lost it and we're making the most of it. Yeah. Yeah. It's great.

It's great. And finally, I'd like to thank Location Unknown to us, probably within the fortress of the moles, thank you to TIFF. TIFF, uh, spat, uh, fight, spat, spats, uh, shoes, uh, shoey, uh, skull, uh, ss, uh, bones, uh, bone yard, yard glass, glassy eyed, eyeball ball, only one ball Hitler. I want to stop here. Smash hit, smash overhead smash, Grand Slam, slammer, wham bam, thank, ma'am. Ma'am, madame, damn, van, damn, van, wheels, driving, driven, golf club, one wood. Wood.

It all comes back to wood. One, top of the pops, pop, popper, big popper, pop a big big bear big pop a bear Bear with me we're trying with with nail and I the nail hammer To the while here email if you want to know that it's definitely you Tiff you can now call yourself That was beautiful So, thank you again to Tiff Ashley Dean Emma Anthony Kerry average student Abby and Jamie You could call me big X Everything comes back to wood That means the last thing we got to do is welcome some people

into the Triptych Club. Now, this week, I've actually got four inductees. Dave, do you want to explain how this all works while I let my brain rest for a second? Yeah, absolutely. This is our theater of the mind clubhouse, sort of hangout zone slash hall of fame, where people have been supporting the show on the shout out level or above for three consecutive years. They've been true to us. We've already given them a shout out or some description, but they've stayed on.

And now to thank them and enthrone them, we welcome them into the Tripditch Club, which is a bar slash hangout space in your mind where people can come in, have a drink, have an eat, have a fun time, hang out with like-minded people. And once you're in, you can never leave. But why would you want to? Because we've got some of the best in the business and some of the best entertainment in the business. I'm floating around, of course.

I'm always here if you need a nickname, come find me. I'm happy to help. All right, so we've got four to read out, but before we get to that, Jess, you're behind the bar. What is the Great Escape cocktail this week? You always have a theme cocktail. Gin. It's just gin. But this is now- this is my opportunity to just say, we have- I have received your complaints.

There have been a lot of them. I did a few of them. About the quality and temperature of the food. So I hear you. I didn't like what I heard, but I hear you. You've reflected on it. I've reflected on it and I'm trying to grow as a person. So what I've done is I have brought in a external catering company this time.

A lovely German man who has quite a lot of experience catering to large groups. Okay. So yeah, I mean, would you like to introduce yourself? Ones, uh, say I'm a man of few words, but, uh, yes, I run a tight kitchen and, uh, what do you want me to say? I've got the gin. Uh, I've got, uh, a soup, uh, which I've, uh, got on this, uh, war stove, um, that I was able to get from a good price from Starlight 13. Unfortunately, it is very hot. Oh, OK. OK. That might not quell some of the complaints that have been made then.

Oh, no. I'm famous. The hot soup man. Ah, I should have done a bit more research. So we do have soup and we do have gin. Yes. Yeah. Cold gin? Oh, what is have soup and we do have gin. Yes. Yeah. Cold gin? Oh, he's just judging.

All right, so we have four names read out. Who's the after party, Dave? Entertainment. You're never going to believe it. What? They're actually touring Australia next month, I can see here. But before that, they're doing a warm up show for us. It is, back together, the Dillinger Escape Plan.

Whoa. Can you believe it? Huge. We've done John Dillinger and we've done the Great Escape. Is that true? We've done John Dillinger? Have we not done John Dillinger? Yeah, we did.

I think Jess did. I think Jess did the report. That's right. There's something wrong with my brain. John. Episode 275, subtitled Public Enemy Number One. I did do it, yeah. It's in my Google Drive there.

I'm going to read that, that sounds interesting. I'd love to know about that. The good thing, you don't waste any brain space on stuff you don't need to know. Why would you need to know about that? I don't waste any brain space on anything. It's empty up there. So hang around for Dillinger escape plan, uh, at the after party before names are read out.

Dave is up on stage, hyping everyone up he's the MC and Jess is, uh, they're giving Dave a bit of support because, uh, in this character that Dave plays, this character vision of Dave, he is lower on self-esteem, but that is the real Dave. Of course, has it coming up the wazoo and out of it as well. That's right.

Great actor over here. So, as I've said about three times, four names. Are we ready? Yes. All right. First up from Rotterham. Was it Rotherham? Rotherham?

My God. In Great Britain. Welcome in, Sam. Thank you, Sam. Never bother him when you're in Rotherham with Sam. Oh. Fantastic. My god. In Great Britain, welcome in Sam. Thank you, Sam. Never bother him when you're in Rotherham with Sam.

Oh! Fantastic. Next up from address unknown. Can only assume from Deep Within the Fortress of the Malls. Please and thank you and welcome Beyond the Cartoons. Beyond the Cartoons. I'm fond of the cartoons. When Beyond the Cartoons... Honestly, what can I do with that? Yeah, no, you're not wrong. Woo! Yeah, I get animated, you're not wrong. Woo!

Yeah, yeah. I get animated when you're around or something like that. That's actually really great. Great. I'd love to network with you. Cartoon Network. Yeah, yeah. From Flagstaff in Arizona. Welcome, Justice Roberson.

Well, I wish it was Just Us tonight, but there's a few other people here. Just Us Roberson. It is spelled Just Us as well, by the way. And you saw this, it really works. It makes a lot of sense. Well, yeah, I mean, it means you did less work on it. So I'd say don't let people know that. OK, don't. No, no one look up the spelling.

And finally, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Go Penguins. Welcome and thank you and please, Rachel Lin. More like Rachel Win Win Win. Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding. Welcome in Rachel, Justice, Beyond and Sam. Make yourselves at home. Hey, grab some gin, win, win. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Welcome in Rachel, Justice, Beyond, and Sam. Make yourselves at home. Hey, grab some gin, grab some soup. And hang around for Dillinger escape plan.

We're going to rock on tonight. Pop, anything we need to tell people before we go? Just that we're proud of them. We're not disappointed. We're just angry. We're just angry. Honestly, you've got to pull up those socks. To your room. Um, thank you for listening. If you want to suggest a topic you can do that.

You can do that. That's a, there's a link in the show notes. We believe in you. You can find links in the show notes as well to our other podcasts that we do. in the show notes. We believe in you. You can find links in the show notes as well to our other podcasts that we do and our website and TikTok and Instagram. Check those out, please.

Dave, boot this baby home. Thank you so much once again from me personally. And don't forget, coming up soon, July 26th, it's a Saturday. And what a day because Matt and my stand-up specials are premiering on the Humdinger YouTube channel. Wow. Hey. You can watch them back to back or back to front, whichever way you like to do that. because Matt and my stand-up specials are premiering on the Humdinger YouTube channel. Wowee. You can watch them back to back or back to front, whichever way you like to do that. But please, put in the calendar.

That's right. And yeah, that reminds me that I'm touring Australia in August and the UK in September. You can find out about that at mattsjurekombi.com and maybe on dugo on pod.com if I figure out how to use that website. I will show you. Thank you again for listening. Until next time. Goodbye. Later.

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