Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Unbelievable Life of Adrian Carton de Wiart

Episode Date: March 27, 2024

Throughout history, there have been some truly remarkable people who have done some truly remarkable things.  One such person was Adrian Carton de Wiart. If you don’t know who he is, thanks, ok, because by the end of this episode, you surely remember his story, if not his name.  He was courageous, a little bit insane, and extremely hard to kill.  Learn more about Adrian Carton de Wiart and his incredible life on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Available nationally, look for a bottle of Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond at your local store. Find out more at heavenhilldistillery.com/hh-bottled-in-bond.php Sign up today at butcherbox.com/daily and use code daily to choose your free offer and get $20 off. Visit BetterHelp.com/everywhere today to get 10% off your first month. Use the code EverythingEverywhere for a 20% discount on a subscription at Newspapers.com. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Benji Long & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Throughout history, there have been some truly remarkable people who have done some truly remarkable things. And one such person was Adrian Carton-Deveart. And if you don't know who he is, that's okay, because by the end of this episode, you will surely remember his story, if not his name. He was courageous, a little bit insane, and extremely hard to kill. Learn more about Adrian Carton-de-Virte and his incredible life on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night.

And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. I've done episodes on some truly remarkable people. Robert Smalls, who was born into slavery, stole a Confederate ship, and went on to serve in the United States Congress. There was Joseph Medicine Crow, who met all the requirements to become a Crow Nation war chief while serving in Europe and World War II. And let's not forget Mad Jack Churchill, who went to battle during the Second World War with a long bow and a broadsword. However, none of them have a story quite like that of Adrian Carton-DeVier. And I'm going to do something unusual and start with the end of the story first.

The end of the story is that Adrian Carton DeVierre died peacefully on June 5, 1963, at the age of 83, at his home in County Cork, Ireland. The only reason why the facts surrounding his death are no worthy is because, as you will soon see, there is no reason why this man should have ever lived to the age of 83. At pretty much any point in his life, if someone, when it had taken the odds, they would have been overwhelmingly against him reaching this age. The subject of our story was born, Adrian Paul Gislein, Carton de Viert, on May 5th, 1880 in Brussels, Belgium. His father was an aristocratic Belgian who served as a lawyer and a magistrate, and his mother was Irish.

He grew up in England in Belgium until his mother passed away when he was just six years old. His father then moved the family to Cairo, where he served as an attorney and as the director of a company. and while he was there, Adrian learned how to speak Arabic. At the age of 11, he was sent to a Catholic boarding school in England, and from there he went to attend Oxford University. However, he never completed his studies at Oxford. In 1890, at the age of just 19, he went off to war. Adrian wanted to take part in the second Boer War,

which was being fought in South Africa. As he was not a British citizen and was only 19, which was too young for overseas service, he lied about his age, provided a fact. fake name of Trooper Carton and then join the Army. Soon after arriving in South Africa, he suffered what would be his first major wounds. He was shot in both the stomach and the groin. He was sent back to England to recuperate.

His injuries were a shock to his father, who had no idea that he had abandoned his studies at Oxford and had joined the Army. The injuries he sustained might have meant the end of military service for many men, but not for Adrian. He returned to South Africa, was promoted to lieutenant, and received a position as an aide-de-camp to the head of the British forces in the region. In 1907, after having served in the British military for eight years, he officially became a British subject. The next year in 1908, he married the daughter of an Austrian aristocrat. The Countess Frederica Maria Caroline Henrietta Rosa, Sabina,

Francisco, Fugger von Babenhausen. The years before the First World War were great for him. He rose through the ranks, traveled through Europe on his leaves, and according to him, simply enjoyed his life. In 1914, he was sent to Somaliland to put on a revolt by Mohammed bin Abdullah, whom the British had dubbed the Mad Mullah. While he was en route to Somaliland, Britain entered the First World War. During an attack on a fort in Somaliland, Adrian was shot twice again, this time in the face. One bullet resulted in the loss of an eye, and the other,

took part of his ear. When he was taken to the hospital, he was fitted with a glass eye. However, he found the glass eye to be so uncomfortable that he reportedly just took it out one day while riding in a taxi, threw it out the window, and wore an eye patch for the rest of his life. For his actions in Somaliland, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Again, once someone had lost an eye in combat and had served in the military for 15 years, that would probably be the end of their career. However, Adrian was just getting started. Lord Ismay, who fought alongside Carton DeVirte in Somaliland said, quote, I honestly believe that he regarded the loss of an eye as a blessing, as it allowed him to get out of Somaliland to Europe where he thought the real action was, end quote.

Despite the loss of his eye, he was assigned to active duty on the Western Front. He commanded several units, including three different brigades and a battalion. In May 9,000, he was assigned. In May 9, In 1915 during the second battle of Yipra, Carton de Viert suffered his greatest injury. During a German artillery bombardment, he was hit with shrapnel in his left arm. The trapnel devastated his arm and his hand. His wristwatch was literally embedded into his wrist. His hand was so mangled that two of his fingers were just hanging by the skin. When he was taken to the hospital, he told the doctor attending to him to amputate his fingers,

but the doctor refused to do so. So in a move that has come to define him, he tore two of the fingers off his own hand by himself. The injuries were so severe that later in the year most of his arm was amputated to prevent the infection from spreading. Getting shot in the stomach and the groin didn't stop him. Losing an eye and part of his ear didn't deter him. So losing his left arm was not going to stop him either. He returned to the front with only one arm and one eye. In 1916 at the Battle of the Somme, he didn't let his disability hold him back.

The soldiers in his unit recalled him pulling the pins from grenades with his teeth and throwing them with his good hand. He was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest honor in the British military, a medal that can be easily distinguished by its purple color. His commendation for the Victoria Cross read, quote, For most conspicuous bravery, coolness, and determination during severe operations of a prolonged nation. It was owing in great measure to his dauntless courage and inspiring example that a serious reverse was averted. He displayed the utmost energy and courage in forcing our attack home. After three other battalion commanders had become casualties, he controlled their commands and ensured that the ground one was maintained at all cost. He frequently exposed himself in the organization of positions and of supplies, passing unflinchingly through fire barrage of the most intense nature.

His gallantry was inspiring to all. end quote. Later at the Battle of the Somme, he was shot again, once in the skull and once in the ankle. And once again, despite getting shot twice and receiving the Victoria Cross, he went back to the front. In the spring of 1917, he was shot again at the Battle of Arras, and he lost what was remaining of his left ear. He went back to the hospital and went back to the front. Later that year at the Battle of Paschandel, he was shot again, this time in the hip. He went back to the hospital and then went back to the front.

Near the end of the war in late 1918 at the Battle of Cambrai, he was shot once again in the leg. After all of his injuries, he was always sent to the Sir Douglas Shields nursing home in England, and he became such a regular that it became a running joke amongst the staff that they always kept a pair of his pajamas on hand for the next time that he would show up. And for those of you keeping count, he was shot eight times, not including the shrapnel that caused him to lose his arm.

In his autobiography, he later said of his experience during the First World War, quote, frankly, I enjoyed the war. Supposedly, for the rest of his life, little bits of metal would occasionally fall out of his body. During the war, he was officially and temporarily promoted eventually reaching the rank of Brigadier General. So at this point, surely he could enjoy. his well-earned retirement. Nope. After the war, he continued in the military,

serving as the commander of the British-Polian military mission. After the war, Poland constantly had to fend off their neighbors. They had border conflicts with the Soviet Union, Lithuania, Ukraine, and the Czechs. While flying over Lithuania, his plane crashed, and he survived. He wound up spending time in a Lithuanian prison. In August of 1920, when the Red Army was approaching Warsaw,

His observation train was attacked, and he found himself in a firefight firing his pistol from the train with just one arm. Finally, in 1922, he retired to an estate in Poland near the Soviet border with the rank of Major General. He served as an advisor to the Polish government up to the invasion of Poland in 1939. Just weeks before the German invasion, he had advised the Polish commander-in-chief to move his forces back to a more defensible position. They actually ignored most of his advice, but they did pull the Polish Navy out of the Baltic Sea, which allowed them to operate throughout the war. When the invasion of Poland began, Carton de Viert had to flee south to Romania, and as he fled, his vehicle was attacked by a German fighter,

which killed his assistant, but left him unscathed. After the invasion of Poland, he was recalled to active duty in the British military. He was initially appointed as the head of the British military. British-Yugoslavian military mission in 1940. In 1941, while flying from Cairo to Serbia, his plane crashed off the coast of Italian-controlled Libya. He was knocked unconscious, but the cold water revived him. He and the rest of the crew had to swim to shore, which he did, with one arm at the age of 60. When he and his crew made it to shore, they were captured by the Italians. Carton de Viert was considered to be a high-profile prisoner and was moved to a special camp,

for officers. While there, he befriended several of the other officers and immediately set to work trying to escape. He made five different escape attempts. In one attempt, they spent seven months working on a tunnel. In his most successful attempt, he managed to evade authorities for eight days. He hid in the countryside dressed as a peasant and managed to evade capture, despite knowing no Italian, and being a 62-year-old, one-armed man with an eye patch. Finally, in 1943, he was summoned to Rome. The Italians wanted to make peace overtures to the Allies and were going to bring him as a good faith gesture to the negotiating site in Lisbon.

However, the Italians required him to dress as a civilian. He said, quote, he had no objection, provided he did not resemble a gigolo. Once he was released to the British in Lisbon, he was now finally able to retire in peace. Right? Nope. As soon as he made it to England, he was summoned to the home. of the Prime Minister Winston Churchill. There, Churchill asked Carton de Viert

to be his personal representative in China. The British relationship with China was difficult considering the whole Hong Kong situation, but he did a commendable job, especially considering that he was kept on even after Churchill was elected out of office. Finally, in 1947, at the age of 67, Carton de Viert retired with the rank

of a three-star lieutenant general. On his way home, stopping in rank Goon, he slipped on a coconut mat, fracturing several of his vertebrae, which, like everything else, did not kill him. In retirement, he wrote his autobiography titled Happy Odyssey. And after writing his memoirs, he passed away at the age of 83. Adrian Carton DeVirte, despite receiving multiple major injuries, having been shot, blown up, and surviving two plane crashes, never gave up. His life's story is a testament to the unbreakable spirit and endurance through some of the most significant and brutal conflicts of the 20th century. His legacy is one of extraordinary bravery,

a near reckless zest for adventure, and an indomitable will to survive. In fact, with his injuries, plane crashes, Victoria Cross, and his high rank in the army, one could say that he was a one-eyed, one-armed, flying purple people leader. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Kiefer. Today's review comes from listener Dorino from Apple Podcasts in Canada. They write, Indispensable Source of Wisdom.

One of the best podcasts. Frankly, I started listening to Everything Everywhere Daily when working in the night shifts. Now I'm addicted to it. Keep up the good work, sir. Also, can you do a podcast regarding the Tamil language and computer viruses? Please and thank you. Well, thanks, Dorino. I don't know if I know enough about the Tamil language to properly do an episode on it, but it could certainly appear as part of a larger show about the languages of India.

As for computer viruses, that is definitely something that's possible in a future episode. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostogram, you two can have it read on the show.