Futility Closet - 128-The Battle for Castle Itter

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Futility Closet podcast, forgotten stories from the pages of history. Visit us online to sample more than 9,000 quirky curiosities from a runaway biplane to a custom-built ruin. This is episode 128. I'm Greg Ross. And I'm Sharon Ross. One of the strangest battles of World War II took place in the Austrian Alps, when American and German soldiers joined forces to rescue a group of French prisoners from a medieval castle.

Starting point is 00:00:35 In today's show, we'll follow the Battle for Castle Itta, the only time that Allies and Germans fought together in the war. We'll also dodge another raft of aerial bombs and puzzle over a bottled pear. Thanks to listener Frank Kroger for suggesting this one. When the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, they were attracted, among other things, to a 13th century castle in the Austrian Alps called Schloss Itter. It combined secrecy, strength, and accessibility since it wasn't far from the German border. In 1943, they converted the castle into a prison. One witness remembered, we saw everything from our school window, a double barbed wire fence

Starting point is 00:01:15 and floodlights so that the whole night was lit up like day. The new prison operated as a subunit of the Dachau concentration camp, which was 90 miles to the northwest, and it housed prominent politicians and military figures that the Nazis wanted to use later as bargaining chips in negotiations. It also held some East European prisoners transferred from Dachau to do maintenance and menial work. The castle, as you might expect, made a good prison. It had thick walls, a dry moat, and a strong gatehouse. 20 of the guest rooms were converted into cells and the rest into guardrooms and offices, and an SS captain named Sebastian Wimmer was in charge, commanding 25 members of the SS concentration camp guard service. They used the prison to hold a group of important French detainees who had been arrested and confined at Hitler's order.

Starting point is 00:01:57 Most of them had been leaders in the French occupation during the early days of the 1940 German occupation. the early days of the 1940 German occupation. They were very important indeed. They included two army generals, two former prime ministers, a former national defense minister, a trade union secretary general, and a tennis star of all people, Jean Bortra, who had been caught trying to escape to the Allies. The prisoners were distinguished but very diverse politically, and they tended to squabble among themselves, in fact, segregated themselves into three different groups at meals. But the quality of their lives was fairly good for a German-run prison. They slept in converted guest rooms, they had access to a prison library, and they exercised in a courtyard in the castle. When the first French were arriving at the castle, Germany's reverses in the war were

Starting point is 00:02:37 far away geographically on the eastern front in North Africa and in the Mediterranean. But as time went on, the war drew nearer. In the Wehrmacht, the German regular army, some Austrians who privately opposed the Nazis began to cooperate with the local civilian resistance troops. That's what makes this whole story interesting. It's about to get a lot more dramatic, is that in the last days of the war, the German forces were starting to fall apart and waver. Some were wavering, and some were quite dedicated to the German cause, and that caused a lot of confusion. So things were changing. As the end of the war approached, the prisoners at the castle became concerned that their captors might execute

Starting point is 00:03:12 them to ensure that their crimes might not come to light. So they were increasingly fearful, but there wasn't much they could do about it. On May 3rd, 1945, the French heard news via a clandestine radio that American forces were advancing into Tyrol with Innsbruck as their first objective. So help was on the way, they thought. The former prime ministers in the castle knew of the current breakdowns in German discipline and resolved to send someone in search of Allied help. The ideal choice was Andrei Kukovic, who was a Yugoslav political prisoner who'd been transferred from Dachau to the castle to serve as a handyman. He regularly was sent out of the castle on errands, so they thought it wouldn't look suspicious if they gave him a message to bring with him. They approached

Starting point is 00:03:48 him about this, and he agreed. So they gave him a letter and told him to give it to the first Americans he met, and sure enough, Vima, the commandant of the castle, sent him out on an errand at 1.30, and he left on a bicycle, which looked innocent enough, but he didn't come back. Vima feared, rightly, that he'd gone in search of Allied help, and things were falling apart enough at that point that Wimma, the commandant of the castle and the guards, just departed, just left, which was not uncommon in that time of people just to depart their posts just for their own protection, leaving the French alone in the castle, which was good for the French, but they couldn't be sure themselves of their own security. Kukovic was still gone on his bicycle.

Starting point is 00:04:23 They didn't know where and with what success, and they couldn't afford really themselves of their own security. Kukovic was still gone on his bicycle. They didn't know where and with what success. And they couldn't afford really to leave the castle because there were still a lot of Wehrmacht and SS troops in North Austria at the time. So they couldn't just walk out of the castle. They were still in quite a bit of danger. They decided on three actions. One was to hang a French tricolor from the main keep in the castle

Starting point is 00:04:41 to discourage Allied air attacks and to let advancing friendly forces know of their presence. So at least they wouldn't get attacked by the Allies. Hopefully, yeah. Hopefully. The second one, second action, odd as it sounds, was to summon an SS officer whom they knew, Kurt Siegfried Schrader, from the village and ask him to take responsibility for their safety. That sounds odd, but Schrader was, he was German, but he was disillusioned with the German cause. He'd grown up in that area and had returned to it. He'd been wounded in the war and was sort of useless for any more combat, so they just sent him home. And he came to visit the castle several times and just got to know them, and they learned that he was sympathetic to them, and they thought it might be helpful to have him

Starting point is 00:05:17 in the castle to sort of direct things and keep them organized. And three, since Kukovic was gone, they decided to send a second bicycle messenger out to contact the Americans. And three, since Kukovic was gone, they decided to send a second bicycle messenger out to contact the Americans, and a Czech cook in the castle named Andreas Krobat stepped forward to volunteer. Krobat set out for the nearby town of Virgil on a bicycle that had belonged to one of the guards, and there he found the SS firing at any window from which a white or Austrian flag hung. Again, this is just chaos in Austria at the time. But he found a resistance fighter and was introduced eventually to Major Josef Sepp Gangl, who was an officer in the Wehrmacht. Gangl had distinguished himself in the German army,

Starting point is 00:05:53 but he wasn't devoted to the cause either. The appearance of diehard Waffen-SS troops in the area prompted him to make his final break with the Wehrmacht. As the other authorities in the area withdrew, the Waffen-SS could wreak havoc on the local people, he saw. In that growing confusion, many local citizens had been setting out white flags just to protect themselves, but Himmler had ordered that these people should be shot, so it was just increasing chaos in that area, and no one could really be sure who was on whose side. Within days of his arrival in Wehrmacht, Gangl had made contact with a local resistance cell and offered to give them both weapons and assistance, which was outright treason. He was basically just renouncing the German cause and throwing over to the Allies and the Austrians, the Austrian resistance.

Starting point is 00:06:35 This was outright treason, punishable by death, not just for Gangl, but for his wife and children, but he just couldn't support the German cause anymore. just couldn't support the German cause anymore. He'd already intended, he knew about the castle and knew what had happened and wanted a Mount Rescue operation of his own, but he feared that he couldn't take it if it was guarded by Wimma and the guards. When he was told that these were now gone, he felt more hopeful, but he still knew he wouldn't be able to hold the castle against the German onslaught, even if he was able to make it there in the first place. And he was still needed officially to safeguard Virgil, the town. The answer was to speed the arrival of the American forces that he knew were coming into the area, and that meant searching them out himself. He was still, in effect, the German military commander of Virgil and could surrender to the

Starting point is 00:07:12 Americans all the remaining Wehrmacht troops in the town, which would please the Americans and, I guess, safeguard his own fortunes after the war. It just seemed like the right thing to do. They knew that Americans had reached the outskirts of Kufstein the previous evening. Gongel and his driver decided to make the seven-mile drive there, revealing their white flag only when close to American lines to avoid trouble with the SS. This gets, I think, very interesting because no one's quite sure who's on whose side. Now, during the seven-mile drive, they'd be in danger from the SS, from the Wehrmacht, and from resistance troops, and from the Americans as well, as the crimes of Dachau and other concentration camps were just being broadcast. But they made it. At Kufstein, they met Jack Lee, a 27-year-old captain from Norwich, New York. He had just led a tank company across France and Germany and now into the Austrian Tyrol. Lee had been hoping that taking Kufstein could be his

Starting point is 00:08:01 company's last battle. Everyone knew that they were nearing the end of the war, and no one wanted to die in the final days. Organized German opposition was crumbling, but there were still plenty of diehard Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht units in northern Austria, so everyone had to be careful. On arriving in Kufstein, Lee had been ordered to hold in place, establishing defensive positions, and firing on Germans only if fired on, as a theater-wide ceasefire was expected within the next 24 hours. only if fired on as a theater-wide ceasefire was expected within the next 24 hours. This is really almost literally the last days of fighting in Europe in World War II. But when he learned about the castle, Lee agreed to mount a rescue operation. So he and Gongle met some reverses in assembling a force, but finally they sat it for the castle with two Sherman tanks, 14 American soldiers, and a kubelwagen, basically a German jeep, and a small truck carrying a total of 10 Germans. When they reached the castle, Lee let the rest of his forces go

Starting point is 00:08:48 inside and then positioned the tank at the main gate. They met Schrader, the SS man, the friendly SS man, who told Lee that he'd seen Waffen-SS forces massed for an attack outside the castle. They didn't have enough vehicles with them to get everyone safely, just to evacuate the castle and get everyone safely back to Kufstein, and the enemy forces nearby made that dangerous anyway, so Lee's plan was to hold the castle until they were relieved by the 142nd infantry, which they were told was coming to the rescue. Lee would remain in overall command, and his lifelong friend Harry Bass, Schrader, and Gangl acted as lieutenants. So just to freeze the action here for a second, this is more and more interesting. An American tank commander is directing an SS captain and a Wehrmacht major

Starting point is 00:09:29 to lead American and German troops in defending an Austrian castle containing French political prisoners from the Waffen-SS. This is sometimes called the strangest battle of World War II, and you can see why. It gets very confused. I'm having to simplify this somewhat. If you want to read more about it, just by the way here, the best source is a military journalist and author named Stephen Harding who wrote a great book called The Last Battle, which is impeccably well-researched. There's a lot of heroism going on behind the scenes that I just don't have time here to talk about, about the organizing, particularly of the rescue that comes later. particularly of the rescue that comes later. So you can imagine that Americans and Germans are conditioned from their experience to regard one another as enemies, even though they're now allies within the castle. All the friendly German troops were asked to wear a strip of dark cloth around their left arms just so that the French and the Americans could distinguish the friendly Germans from the hostile Germans. The defenders were relatively well armed and they had the strength of the castle on their side. If the Germans breached the walls, they could

Starting point is 00:10:28 withdraw to the tall central building, which they called the keep, and fight for it. So it's mostly a question of how long they can hold on in the castle. The fighting began at 4 a.m. with fire from the Germans. At first, this was just relatively sporadic. They were apparently looking for a way into the castle that didn't require going through the well-defended gatehouse where the tank was, remember? Generally, the Germans seemed to be probing the castle's defenses rather than trying to breach them. They were trying to assess the strength of the defending forces, which they couldn't know. But they might try to launch a full attack before the Allied relief forces arrived. The German defenders risked being executed as traitors if they lost the battle.

Starting point is 00:11:01 There's Germans inside the castle being attacked by Germans outside the castle. they lost the battle. There's Germans inside the castle being attacked by Germans outside the castle and if the ones on the outside are successful and take the castle the ones on the inside will be executed and no one knows what the outcome is going to be. In fact one German defender actually ran from one side to the other ran out from the castle into the woods where the Waffen SS attackers were apparently for this reason. That was bad because they lost a man but also because he would be able to tell them of the castle's defenses. Lee must have worried about the faithfulness of the remaining German soldiers. How could he not? But Gongle must have convinced him of their loyalty because Lee allowed them to keep their weapons, which turned out to be fine.

Starting point is 00:11:38 Lee and Gongle went to the top floor of the keep to inform Schrader, the SS man, of what had happened. From there, they saw 100 to 150 Waffen-SS troops, so they were greatly outnumbered, entering the woods and guns being set up to attack the castle. Lee had to get the word out to protect the forces coming to help him, who didn't know what they were running into. But their tank's radio had gone out. He was cursing his luck when Schrader simply suggested using the telephone.

Starting point is 00:12:02 Castles have telephones, working telephones. And surprisingly, this worked. Gangl called the leader of the austrian resistance cell in virgil who promised to pass the intelligence on to the first americans he saw a few minutes later at 10 the attack began in earnest the tank parked at the gatehouse was hit with an anti-tank round but the three men who were assigned to it survived the french women and children who had been in the rear court courtyard of the castle went to the cellar but four of the Frenchmen remained in the courtyard with weapons to fire at advancing Germans. This just gets more and more dramatic. As the fighting intensified, fire from the SS troops killed several Wehrmacht men and wounded others.

Starting point is 00:12:35 Among them, unfortunately, was Gongel himself, shot by a sniper as he and Lee were looking out from a rooftop observation post, trying to spot that anti-tank gun. They were beginning to run low on ammunition when the telephone rang again. It was Major John T. Kramers calling from Virgil's undamaged town hall. This has to be made into a movie sometime. I'm astonished that it hasn't. Do you remember Andrei Kukovic, the Yugoslav handyman who went peddling out at the very beginning of this story? Well, he had kept peddling toward Innsbruck where he'd finally met up with Kramers, who was a former artilleryman who was now working, fortunately, on organizing a rescue force. Lee told him that the SS fire was increasing and that the defenders were running out of ammunition.

Starting point is 00:13:13 Kramers told him that help was coming, but there was an explosion at that moment, and the line went dead before Lee could tell him about the Waffen-SS troops' location, strength, or weaponry. So Kramers still didn't know. There was a rescue on the way, but they still didn't know what they were about to run into. By noon, the castle's defenders were almost out of ammunition, and Lee needed the rescuers to find the castle quickly. So now things got even more dramatic. Jean Bortra, the tennis star, offered to sneak out of the castle, going over the wall, find the relief force, and guide them through the village's twisting streets. Lee let him go. He disguised himself as an Austrian refugee with a ragged bedroll and a walking stick, ran across 40 yards of open ground, and disappeared into the woods. Lee was now almost out of options. He began to plan what to do if the relief force couldn't reach them in time. They'd

Starting point is 00:13:54 withdraw into the castle's keep and use the remaining ammunition, bayonets, and their fists if they had to against the invading SS. He started pulling defenders off the walls and shepherding the French into the keep. Sensing victory, the SS troops converged on the castle now and prepared to fire an anti-tank rocket into the front gate just before 3 p.m. when they heard automatic weapons and tank guns behind them in the village. They heard a Wehrmacht soldier high in the keep cry, Amerikanische Panzer, which means American tanks, and a relief force of tanks and half-tracks was shooting its way up the road, and with them was Jean-Bartraud de Ténestart, who had made it, and John Kramers in a reconnaissance unit from the 142nd Infantry

Starting point is 00:14:28 Regiment. So that was it. They were overmatched now, and the SS attackers melted into the woods. There was only one casualty among the defenders in all of this fighting, and that was Joseph Gangl himself, who was killed by the sniper. He's remembered today as a hero of the anti-Nazi resistance. He was buried in Virgo, where a street is named after him today. Again, for details of this, I recommend Stephen Harding's book. He can give you almost a minute-by-minute account of how the battle unfolded. About 100 SS prisoners were taken. Two days later, Germany signed an unconditional surrender, making this battle the last full-fledged ground combat action of World War II in Europe.

Starting point is 00:15:02 It was the only time Germans and allies fought together in World War II in Europe. It was the only time Germans and allies fought together in World War II. As the rescue force removed the dead and cared for the wounded, the French VIPs were driven off in hastily requisitioned cars, and the seven Americans and remaining Wehrmacht soldiers piled into a truck and rode back to Kufstein. Jack Lee later received a Distinguished Service Cross and was promoted to captain. This is all entertainingly odd, but it had real significance even in the closing days of the war. Harding told the BBC, If the SS had managed to get into the castle and kill the French VIPs, the history of post-war France would have been radically different.

Starting point is 00:15:32 These people formulated the policies that carried France into the 21st century. Had they died, who knows what would have happened. This episode is brought to you by our patrons and by Harry's. I've mentioned Harry's before. For years I used an electric shaver until Harry's had me try their blades, and I'd forgotten how close a shave you can get with a good blade. And you can't beat the convenience. Harry's delivers right to your door.

Starting point is 00:16:02 Big razor companies have the annoying habit of putting out new models and raising their already high prices. Unlike those guys, Harry's doesn't believe in upcharging, which is why they've made their razors even better and they're keeping their prices exactly the same. Harry's five-blade razors now include a softer flex hinge for a more comfortable glide, a trimmer blade for hard-to-reach places, a lubricating strip, and a textured handle for more control when it's wet. And they're still just $2 per blade compared to the $4 or more you'll pay at the drugstore. By owning the factory in Germany where they make the blades, Harry's can produce high-quality razors themselves and sell them online for half the price.

Starting point is 00:16:32 Harry's is so confident in the quality of their blades that they'll send you their popular free trial set, which comes with a razor, a five-blade cartridge, and shaving gel. That's free when you sign up for a shave plan. You just pay shipping. Plus, there's a special offer for fans of this show. Enter code CLOSET at checkout to get a post-shave balm added to your order for free. Go to harrys.com right now and enter code CLOSET at checkout to claim your free trial set and post-shave balm. That's harrys.com, code CLOSET. We have gotten a surprising amount of email about aerial bombs in the U.S. during World War II and otherwise.

Starting point is 00:17:07 Listener Mike James wrote, You seem to be getting a steady stream of responses to Episode 111 regarding the Japanese fire balloons. In April of 1945, three weeks before the fire balloon went off in Oregon, killing six people, a Japanese balloon exploded harmlessly over the Dundee neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska. a Japanese balloon exploded harmlessly over the Dundee neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska. My mother grew up about a block away from the site, a pharmacy at the corner of North 50th Street and Underwood Avenue. There is a plaque near the site of the explosion commemorating the attack.

Starting point is 00:17:35 Love the show. Keep up the good work. And that is kind of impressive because if you look at the map of the U.S., Dundee is over 1,500 miles from the West Coast as the balloon would fly. It was impressive enough that the balloons made it the 5,000 or500 miles from the West Coast as the balloon would fly. It was impressive enough that the balloons made it the 5,000 or so miles from Japan, but at least one of them made it a good bit further than that. I think I was scary.

Starting point is 00:17:51 That must have been just out of nowhere to have a Japanese bomb. Yeah, you're not even on the coast. I mean, you're not even anywhere. You're in the middle of a country. And Kelly Bruce wrote in about, with a follow-up to episode 125 story about an Oklahoma town being accidentally bombed by the U.S. Air Force during a training mission.

Starting point is 00:18:09 Kelly wrote, hello, Sasha, Sharon, and Greg. And I have to say here that I appreciated how Kelly put Sasha first, as I'm sure she would think that's entirely proper. First, thank you for these tidbits of history and amusement. I am a computer and copier repairman, and as such, I do a lot of driving. Your podcast is great for the long passages of windshield time. Second, I was listening to your most recent podcast and heard the story about the dummy bombs being dropped on a U.S. town. I know of a more recent drop of dummy bombs not on target.

Starting point is 00:18:36 This happened in 2006, when the U.S. Air Force was doing a testing run to the Smoky Hill bombing range in Kansas in my area. The U.S. Air Force came out and said that in this case, the coordinates were mistyped into the GPS and the computer automatically dropped them in the wrong location. Fortunately, this wound up being in the middle of Kannapolis Lake, a few miles away. Kelly and Sherry Bruce and Juno the cat. So greetings out to Juno. And yeah, B-52 accidentally bombed a Kansas lake in July 2006 with concrete practice bombs. It was very lucky that they fell into a lake and managed to just narrowly miss the

Starting point is 00:19:10 reservoir's dam, so there wasn't any real damage, other than to the unidentified crew members who were grounded and, according to the Associated Press, had to undergo tightly monitored retraining and qualification processes. That's kind of alarming that they type in those coordinates by hand. You know, it's just sort of asking for some sort of human error. I guess you're right. Yeah. And then once the coordinates are in, like the computer doesn't notice like, hey, this doesn't look like where I'm supposed to be dropping the bomb.

Starting point is 00:19:34 It's like, this is where it is. Rich Wages also wrote in with an update to episode 125, although Rich's story had a much more unfortunate outcome. Rich said that where he lives in Northwest Florida, there is a well-known story of an Army Air Corps bomber accidentally bombing a family home in 1944. An equipment malfunction on one of the bombers during a practice run caused a 20-pound fragmentation bomb to be released over the home, killing all four members of the family and wounding five others. Rich says that memorials are still held regularly in honor of the victims of the accident,

Starting point is 00:20:09 so that was clearly the most serious of the accidental bombings that we've heard about. And a couple of our listeners wrote in to let us know about another aerial bombing in the U.S. that we'd missed, although this one was deliberate. Brett Burton wrote, During episode 125 of your podcast, someone wrote in to mention the World War II bombing of Boy City, Iowa. They commented saying, I believe this is technically the only time a town in the mainland U.S. has been bombed from a plane. I would have just said aerially bombed until I listened to the podcast about the Japanese fire

Starting point is 00:20:40 bombs. And Brett says, I thought I would follow up to their follow up by pointing out that in 1985, the city of Philadelphia bombed the compound of the MOVE political group. Technically, the bombing was done by helicopter and not by plane. But I thought I'd point out that it was another often overlooked air bombing of the mainland US. And it was certainly overlooked by me as I hadn't heard of it before. So thanks to Brett and also to Paul Simino, who sent in a helpful link on the incident. Apparently, the Black Liberation Group MOVE had two major conflicts with the Philadelphia police, and the second one in 1985 ended with a police helicopter dropping two bombs on MOVE's row house, which started a massive fire that destroyed an estimated 65 other homes and killed 11 people. A federal jury in 1996 ordered the city to pay $1.5 million

Starting point is 00:21:28 to the only surviving adult member of MOVE and two relatives of other victims. At the time, Philadelphia was called by some the city that bombed itself. So that was a new one. And the Futility Closet website is mostly Gregg's province, and I usually learn about the stories on it by reading them, just like anyone else. So lastly, on the subject of aerial bombings in the U.S., here's a story that I learned about from Futility Closet's Twitter feed, just as I was putting together this segment this week. In 1958, a B-47 dropped a 7,600-pound nuclear bomb into Wausau Sound near Savannah, Georgia. This happened during a simulated combat mission after the bomber collided with an F-86 fighter.

Starting point is 00:22:14 The fighter crashed and the bomber struggled to stay aloft. In order to quickly reduce its weight and protect the crew from an explosion if it did make an emergency landing, the crew dropped the 7,600-pound nuclear bomb. The bomb contained 400 pounds of conventional explosives and highly enriched uranium. And there's been some disagreement as to whether or not it included the plutonium capsule that would be needed to start a nuclear reaction. And that's pretty important because in the subsequent almost 60 years of searching, the Air Force still hasn't found the bomb. It hit the water near Tybee Island off the

Starting point is 00:22:45 Georgia coast and is presumably buried in the silt somewhere in the sound, but exactly where it is and just how dangerous it is remain unknown. That's a tricky decision if you have to drop some ballast to stay alive. The only thing you have to drop is a bomb. Yeah, well, and also, I mean, but you don't want the bomb on the plane if the plane might potentially crash, right? So, wow. In episode 121, we discussed how a group of Russian botanists fought to keep alive a storehouse of crops during the siege of Leningrad. And Tom Groves wrote in with an update to this story. Enjoyed the recent podcast story on the Pavlovsk experimental Station and the extraordinary sacrifices the scientists there

Starting point is 00:23:25 made. Truly one of the great stories of heroic selflessness in human history. Unfortunately, the recent history hasn't quite lived up to those standards. In his book, A Curious History of Food and Drink, Ian Crofton talks about this story and concludes with the following. In 2010, the station came under threat from a property developer who wanted to build private homes on the land. In 2010, the station came under threat from a property developer who wanted to build private homes on the land. The developer argued that because the station contained a priceless collection, it had no monetary value and was therefore worthless. Tom says not exactly humankind's finest hour. Crofton further notes that, joining in the Kafkaesque spirit of the affair, the Russian government's Federal Fund of Residential

Starting point is 00:24:05 Real Estate Development argued that as the collection was never registered, it did not officially exist. To this, Wikipedia adds, in 2010, the experimental station faced an uncertain future because the land it sits on is being sold to a developer who plans to build private homes on the site. If this planned development had gone forward, much of the collection would have been lost. Due to technical issues and quarantine regulations, it would not have been feasible to move the collection before demolition of the station was slated to have begun. And Tom notes that fortunately, Wikipedia also says that in April 2012,

Starting point is 00:24:38 the Russian government took formal action to preserve this important genetic repository and stop the land from being conveyed to private interests for development. Tom says, so there may still be some hope that we've not all completely lost our collective marbles. That's good. That was only 70 years ago. They made this heroic sacrifice. It's kind of scary that people could forget it so quickly. Or just devalue it, you know, just not appreciate the importance of it. Yeah. So thanks so much to everyone who writes in to us. We appreciate hearing your feedback and story updates.

Starting point is 00:25:10 And if you have any you'd like to send in, please send them to podcast at futilitycloset.com. It's my turn to try to solve a lateral thinking puzzle. Greg is going to give me an interesting sounding situation, and I have to try to puzzle out what's going on, asking only yes or no questions. Here's a collection of little ones. Okay. This first one is from the Soviet popular science magazine, Kvant. A glass flask of an irregular shape contains a certain amount of liquid.

Starting point is 00:25:39 Is it possible to tell whether the flask is more or less than half full? You're not allowed to use any measuring devices or other containers. Oh, no. I feel like this is going to take me an hour, and you're expecting me to solve it immediately. A flask of an irregular shape has some amount of liquid. Is it possible to tell if the container is half full? I'll just tell you it is possible. The question is how you do it. Well, yeah.

Starting point is 00:26:07 I mean, because if I could just say no, it's not possible. And that's the end of it. Without using any kind of measuring device. Or other containers. Or other containers. All you've got is the flask itself. All I've got is the flask itself and myself. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:26:20 Do I use myself in some way? No. Does it matter what the shape is? When you say it's an irregular shape, are you thinking of a specific shape or you just mean it's just any odd shape? That's right. It can be any odd shape. Glass flask.

Starting point is 00:26:35 Is it possible to tell? Do I have like a mark, something I could use to make a mark on the bottle? Yes. So do I make a mark where the liquid is and then turn the bottle upside down and see? That's exactly what you do. Oh, yay for me. So then if the fluid rises to that mark, it's half full. I was really nervous that I wasn't going to be able to solve that one. I think you could come up with some bizarrely shaped flask where that wouldn't quite work, but for generally, I think that'd work. Well, that's true. If it had really funny nooks and crannies or something, yeah. Okay, this next one has a visual aid.

Starting point is 00:27:05 This is from the book Lateral Mind Trap Puzzles. And for the listeners, I'm going to put this image in the show notes. If you can't easily see that, all you need to know is that she's looking at a bottle

Starting point is 00:27:13 of pear brandy, which is shaped like an ordinary brandy bottle with a narrow neck and a wide body. Inside, in addition to the brandy, is a real full-sized pear, which is much too wide

Starting point is 00:27:23 to fit through the mouth of the bottle. The question is, how did they get the pear in the bottle? Did they form the bottle around the pear? No. Did they put the pear in when it was a little pear and let it grow to a big pear? Yes, they did. And this is how they actually do this. The pear was grown inside the bottle.

Starting point is 00:27:40 Grow to a big pear? Yes, they did. And this is how they actually do this. The pear was grown inside the bottle. In the spring, just after the blossoms have turned into pear buds, farmers tie the bottles into trees using wire and string. The buds grow into pears inside the bottles, and the bottles are picked, cleaned, and filled with brandy.

Starting point is 00:27:56 Yay. Let's talk to these real quick. Okay, one more. Is this about a bottle, too? No. Because you two are about bottles. Okay. We can do a bottle-themed lateral thinking puzzle. On the Futility Closet website not long ago, I posted an item about the famous Capitol

Starting point is 00:28:10 Records Tower in California, noting that the blinking light on top of it spells out the word Hollywood in Morse code and that it's done so, in fact, ever since the building opened in 1956. When I posted that item, reader Steve Schuerman wrote in to note that there's another building, the Grant Building in Pittsburgh, built in 1929 that had a similar beacon, except that this one spelled out T-P-E-B-T-S-A-U-R-G-H. What does this mean? Oh, no. Should I have written this down? No.

Starting point is 00:28:37 I couldn't keep track of it. You don't need to know precisely what the letters are. I don't need to know precisely what the letters are. It's just, okay, where was this building again that was doing this? Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh? Was it attempting to spell out Pittsburgh and they got it wrong?

Starting point is 00:28:51 Oh! That's the answer. In fact, before it spelled out what I just gave you, it spelled out P-I-T-E-T-S-B-K-R-R-H. These were both

Starting point is 00:29:00 misspellings of Pittsburgh due to malfunctions with the relay switch. It was repaired in 2009. Steve writes, based on the era of these buildings, I think the Morse code beacons were intended for airplanes since navigation was difficult in the early days of aviation. There were lots of ground indicators of many types during that time. So thanks, Steve, for sending that in. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:29:16 If anybody else has a puzzle they'd like to send in for us to use, please send it to us at podcast at futilitycloset.com. We really do appreciate the puzzle submissions that we get. Sometimes a puzzle doesn't work out for a variety of reasons, so you may not always get to hear your puzzle on the show, but please do keep sending them in. If you would like to become one of our wonderful patrons who help support the show and get bonus materials, such as extra discussions, outtakes, and peeks behind the scenes,

Starting point is 00:29:44 then check out the support us section of the website get bonus materials such as extra discussions, outtakes, and peeks behind the scenes. Then check out the support us section of the website or our Patreon campaign at patreon.com slash futility closet. If you're looking for more quirky curiosities, check out the futility closet books on Amazon or visit the website at futilitycloset.com where you can sample more than 9,000 delightful distractions. At the website, you can see the show notes for the podcast and listen to previous episodes. If you have any questions or. At the website, you can see the show notes for the podcast and listen to previous episodes. If you have any questions or comments about the show, you can reach us by email at podcast at futilitycloset.com.

Starting point is 00:30:12 Our music was written and performed by Doug Ross. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.

Futility Closet - 128-The Battle for Castle Itter

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.