Jocko Podcast - 94: There is a Limit to What A Person Can Be Asked To Do. And Sometimes You Lose. "Men at Arnhem", by Geoffrey Powell

Episode Date: September 27, 2017

0:00:00 - Opening 0:05:49 - Sometimes you lose.  Default Aggressive.  - "Men At Arnhem", by Geoffrey Powell. 2:07:29 - Real world take-aways and life comparisons.  2:20:07 - Support JockoStore stuff, Origin Brand Apparel, with Jocko White Tea and Psychological Warfare (on iTunes). Extreme Ownership (book), The Discipline Equals Freedom Field Manual.  2:40:25 - Closing Gratitude.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocko podcast number 94 with Echo Charles and me Jocker Willink. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. The black cloud of smoke exploded silently outside the open door of the Dakota, obscuring for the moment my view of the geometrical Dutch landscape, deserted but for a few forlorn cows. As soon as the sea it appeared below us, I started to think about the flack. and I knew that everyone else in the aircraft must be worrying as well. When we crossed the East Anglican coastline,

that slight wave of movement had flickered down the aircraft as the men checked their watches, calculating the time it would take to fly over the sea and come within range of the now alerted German anti-aircraft guns. Below us, the air-sea rescue launches of the RAF, dotting the water at precise intervals, were pleasantly comforting. The narrow band of Beach, which was the coast of Holland, had aroused us once again. As the flooded fields flashed into view, Private Harrison had leaned across to point out the guns on the ground shooting up at the masked ranks of our aircraft.

At the sound of my Batman's voice, which had been silent for the past hour, the men near to the open doorway had craned forward to see what they could, while the rest, anxious for the first indications of the enemy had twisted their necks to peer through the small windows at their backs. At first I could see nothing. And I was stupidly aggravated that everyone but myself could spot gun flashes. Then came that cloud of smoke producing an odd sense of satisfaction, a reaction which immediately shamed me. This was the behavior of a small boy. For all that, it was was satisfying not to feel scared by it perhaps it was because the experience was not only novel but in some way impersonal looking down the dark tunnel of the aircraft at the double line of

soldiers it was a relief to see that all traces of nervousness had disappeared we had been waiting a long time for this so that is the opening of a book called men at our NAM and it was actually sent to me by a guy by the name of James Fenelan and the book Was originally published under the pseudonym Tom Angus and it was about this battle at this place called Arnham which is in Holland and in the book The units that are doing the fighting they're not identified. They don't say what units they are But shortly after the book was published it became very clear and it was revealed that the author was an individual named Jeffrey Powell, a British army officer and that the unit that the book talks about was the 156th parachute

battalion of the British Army who fought against all odds and really with misfortune after misfortune for eight days during operation Market Garden which is a famous World War II operation a bold and super aggressive plan and also The largest airborne operation up until that point and the goal Was to isolate parts of the German forces and To cut off what's known as the rur district which is like the heart of German industry and then open up a route going from through that whole area take control of the roads and the bridges and be able to punch right into the heart of Germany over 40,000 airborne troops took part in

the operation including America's 82nd airborne and the 101st airborne divisions but the deepest that those that jump deepest into enemy territory were from the British British first airborne division and that included this battalion the 156th Parachute Battalion and if you know anything about Operation Market Garden although it did achieve some beneficial things overall the mission was considered a failure because it didn't actually achieve the objectives that it wanted to achieve and as you can imagine those that were furthest out suffered some absolutely catastrophic casualties and people taken prisoner and people killed in action and

and this is only an eight day this is eight days long so this this period that we're about to cover is only eight days long and you're gonna see that it is it is vicious and the names were changed in this book but again this is an accountant an account from one of the company commanders inside this battalion so obviously the opening was them flying over to the English Channel and getting ready to jump in to Holland and here we go back to the book I braced myself at the open door the first man in the stick to jump gripping the fuselage in case a sudden jerk flung me out too soon leaning forward the wind whipped my face pouring over the details of the placid

Dutch landscape below, I could now see one or two cyclists dotting the otherwise deserted countryside. The flicker of the red warning light near my face told me that there was one minute to go. A railway line flashed below. The pattern of the woods was familiar as the view of the stable yard from the office window. The air photographs and the briefing model of the ground had imprinted the shapes on my mind. The pilots were dead on target. More often than not in the old days we had been dropped astray but these yanks always learned from their mistakes I never saw the red light turned to green Harrison's hand slapped my shoulder I was out of the door the slipstream hit me flicking me sideways and I fell away just catching a glimpse of Harrison in the air

above me and the tail of the aircraft flashing out of sight then I was floating suspended gently in midair my parachute canopy high I looked up at the sky choked with hundreds of swaying parachutes most of them patterned in green and brown camouflage but other others in a galaxy of colors red and orange purple blue and yellow vivid against the scattered white clouds Every moment more aircraft arrived arrived to disgorge their cargoes into the crowded air Then I noticed the humming we were being shot at from the ground There were bosh on the drop zone Something was badly wrong and opposed landing with the enemy firing as we hung from our parachutes

Or tried to collect our weapons before we could gather into a cohesive force on the ground Was something new for us in the British airborne forces So as they're coming down they're getting shot at he uses this term throughout the book. He calls the German bosh B-O-C-H-E and where it comes from from what I gathered there's a French word that means it could mean head like Cabosh or something like that and it also can mean cabbage and so I guess they're their slang term their derogatory slang term was these big headed German big cabbage heads and he reduced that down to this term bosh and it's a common one for them to use they

used it a lot in World War one and so this is this is a hangover from that but you're gonna hear it throughout the book that's how he's referring to the Germans back to the book a sharp pain burned the knuckles of my left hand blood was seeping from my fingers a bullet must have hit me grazed me anyway but now the heath land was rushing up raising my hands to lift the webs I pulled and then hit the and then the ground hit me with an uncomfortable jar a bad landing I lay in the sunken road listening to the bullets cracking overhead and they're right they get right into the mix I mean it's immediately into the mix obviously they're getting shot out in the way down and then what soon as they hit the ground

It's on back to the book a man with bloodstained bloodstained shell dressing wrapped around his throat walked around the corner of the wooding Towards us just as Pritchard who's the medic finished his work Then came a couple of parties carrying stretchers the occupant of one unconscious the other with a cigarette between his gray tight lips they were the first stream of wounded men from a variety of units making their painful way towards the dressing station which had been set up in the wood behind us so far sea company had been lucky only four men were missing and a fifth had turned up late smiling cheerfully despite a bullet through his bandaged arm another four or five were limping and hopping about on strained or twisted ankles expressions of disgust in their faces victims of

the gusty wind on the dropping zone. All of them would have to be left behind. But then I thought again, calculating the figures once more, perhaps we had not been so lucky after all. A tenth of the men who had implained that morning were already casualties. It had sounded as if all the fighting had happened on the far side of the dropping zone, in the Arnhem direction. Now the noise of the battle began to ebb.

The enemy posts had probably been overrun. Neither news nor orders had arrived from battalion headquarters But I knew better than to obstruct the radio net with needless questions So first of all you're rolling into a situation where you you're on your insert and you lose 10% of your men That's that's just where you're starting now I if I remember correctly That is the standard kind of figure that when you're conducting a big Airborne operation like when the army can Ducks big airborne operations that's what they figure they're gonna take for casualties on the drop zone

Obviously they usually do better than that but for worst case scenarios that's kind of what they figure and that's where they're at The other thing that I thought was cool is here he is he hasn't heard any word from the battalion HQ yet but he's not gonna jump on the net and saying hey boss what do you want me to do Hey what's going on? Hey where do you want me to be because there's other people that are trying to talk and he's got to just kind of figure things out at this point Now he's talking about his own company, but here's the report on the rest of the battalion as he figured itself. And as usual, obviously, I'm not reading the whole book and I'm skipping through big chunks of combat situations, but at this point, he figures out what's going on with the battalion

going back to the book. Casualties in the battalion had not been light. Two officers and a hundred men had failed to arrive. Among them, the plane load, which we had seen shot down. another load had probably been dropped in the wrong place in hampshire was one of the missing officers rumor had it that he was dead the other was the intelligence officer whose job jimmy gray had now combined with his own jimmy could not explain the reason for the delay no one seemed to know and that's one of the parts that i didn't go over in the beginning of the book as they're flying in as they're seeing flack hit and

explode around them he's you know they see another one of their aircraft filled with their brothers go down no shoots now they start getting some coherent input from the battalion and here's what they figured out going back to the book we would move as had already been planned in England the leading company of the battalion with Leslie Doyle's platoon number nine in the front some 200 yards ahead followed by company headquarters, then Luke Tyler's eight platoon, then Douglas Thompson's seven platoon at the back. As I had expected, the company was ready to move by the time orders had been given out.

Two minutes were all that was needed for the men to slide their entrenching tools into place, pick up their weapons, and sort themselves out. No one had removed his equipment. It was a lesson which the colonel had drummed into us. No man must ever remove his equipment when the enemy is anywhere. near no matter whether he was digging sleeping or defecating whatever time it may be day or night a soldier had only to reach for his weapon to be ready to fight or to march just once this day just once each day one man in three at a time was allowed to strip so that he could wash and shave

and shave they must the last man of nine platoon was disappearing around the corner of the sandy track which ran parallel with the railway line to Ardenham When I noticed the colonel standing on the right next to the shell of a still smoking glider, which partly blocked the battalion's path. So there was paratroopers that came in, but other people came in on gliders, just big gliders. You know, no engine that would get towed by other planes. They're filled with men, and they would just land these gliders in big open fields. Gray was by the colonel's side, and behind them crouched a knot of radio operators and orderlies. It was the same as ever.

The colonel's eyes were still, but he never missed anything. The unfastened pouch from which a grenade or Brenn magazine could slip. The slack chin strap which would fail to hold a running man's steel helmet in place. Quietly, the colonel would indicate the error to whichever passing officer or NCO was responsible for the man. Nothing was ever ignored. Safely out of range, the offender would mumble about the nether. nitpicking old bastard But the abuse was usually perfunctory and good-natured all of them knew his ways and by now they had learned that his fads mattered

So the colonels running a tight ship That's what he's doing he's a highly disciplined guy and he keeps his keeps his troops in check and As you can see they're not offended by that like they they complain about it a little bit But they also they also know it's the Right thing to you. Here we go back to the book. Although we were moving along our planned route, our role in the battle had been changed.

Instead of making for the high ground north of Arnhem, the whole of the brigade was now marching for the bridge to relieve the struggling remnants of the first brigade, which had been fighting alone there for more than 24 hours. One thing was certain. So their mission had changed a little bit. There's a bridge, and First Brigade was at this bridge, had taken the bridge,

but now they're getting attacked at that bridge. by the Germans and they're and now these guys get this brigade gets the orders to go and help them go and relieve them back to the book one thing was certain parachute infantry were not the fast-moving hard-hitting troops depicted by the daily press with no more transport in a battalion than four lightly armored carriers and some half-dozen jeeps nearly everything needed in battle either had to be carried on the backs of soldiers or dragged behind them There were no trucks just behind the forward companies loaded with spare ammunition. Instead, extra bandoliers were strung around necks and light anti-tank mines swung from waist belts.

Success came with surprise in this sort of fighting. The enemy must be caught unaware and crushed before they could recover. Inevitably, we would run short of ammunition if the bosh were allowed the chance of standing and fighting. This weary trudge toward the bridge in Arnhem along the endless tracks was a crazy way to use airborne troops Surprise had been lost long ago Before the operation started I doubted the wisdom of dropping so far from the bridges Now it was clear that it had been a mistake So they're they're in a radically different situation instead of dropping in and holding some ground now they're moving they have to carry all their gear with them it's

It's not a good situation He's talking about some of the guys are carrying it as much as a hundred pounds Which is a ton of weight and Now they get they get word from the colonel back to the book. He was able to confirm that the first Parachute Brigade was still holding out at the bridge where the casualties had been heavy on both sides The Germans having already lost 2,000 men although it was not clear who had counted them now as a Now, as he gets done with that, he kind of gives some word. They're going to start moving down this track.

So he's giving that order to this one of his officers, Doyle. And Doyle's normally, you know, pretty, pretty fired up about what he's doing. He's a motivated guy. And here we go. Back to the book, Doyle was not at all his emboldient self. The task of Nine Platoon was simple. He and his men had to walk straight down the track until they ran into the Boche position. Their first warning of the enemy presence would be the rifle and machine gun fire tearing into them

Still less were the two scouts to be envied who would be moving out in front of the rest of the platoon It was almost inevitable that the first German rounds would hit one or both of them unless the Germans were cunning enough to let them pass so as to kill more of the men behind But without armor in front to draw the enemy fire and pinpoint their positions There was no other way to advance I had chosen Doyle to lead the advance because I was certain that I could rely on him This was the penalty for being good at one's job So there you go they're actually walking down train tracks and they know a hundred percent they know a hundred percent they know a hundred percent that Germans are waiting for them and they're gonna push down the tracks and the way they're gonna find the Germans is when the Germans start shooting at them

So they proceed down the tracks and now going back to the book the expected happen happened the calm of the night collapsed in an explosion of light and noise From a wide arc in front of nine platoon streams of white red and yellow tracer bullets converged on the stretch of track where the men must have flung themselves to the ground. Vary lights and parachute flares, larger and brighter than anything carried by us, swung down towards the earth, lighting the dark country shied to the shade of a gray November morning. A house burst into flames on the other side of the railway. It was too sudden for an accident.

The conflagration must have been planned. Anything which moved was now visible. Overall was the noise. The din of shells and mortars bursting both behind and ahead, merging with the harsh roar of the enemy Spandau light machine guns and the more sustained drumming of the heavier weapons. Now I could hear another sound. It was a slow rata-tat-tat of nine platoons brenguns and the crack of British rifles replying to the German fire. There were a lot of enemy in front of us. The Germans had men everywhere.

So this is like a well-planned ambush scenario and if you think about it they had it sounds like they rigged this house to light up and and be on fire and now that's backlighting and Siluating all the friendly troops because it just makes you stand out because it's a fire behind you On top of that machine gun fire on top of that mortars shells are hitting you and here we go back to the book as as as as the major here as the company commander Jeffrey Powell is is crouched down waiting as all this is happening out ahead of him he's not with that first platoon he's behind them a little bit and here we go back to the book I saw a single crouched figure running up the track behind towards me then I recognize the broad bulk of Bartholomew Leslie Doyle's platoon sergeant this was quick Leslie had wasted no timing sending back news only a little out of breath sergeant Tholomew sank down by my side and began to speak his voice is calm and sensible as usual His leading section had come under fire at a range of only some 20 or 30 yards It appeared that the Germans had allowed the two scouts to pass on molested but everyone else in the front section had been killed There were several other casualties in the platoon as well including mr. Doyle who had been hit badly in the thigh and was only semi-conscious the

The survivors were pinned to the ground by fire which was coming from either side of the track This was all wrong with his platoon commander hit sergeant Bartholomew His place was with the platoon there were plenty of other people to carry messages not only that but Bartholomew could hardly have had time to verify the disastrous information about the leading section It was far like far from likely that every man in it had been killed So Bartholomew's nerve had broken in the first test. So that's the situation. This guy ran and he comes back and reports in and says, you know, hey, everyone's dead.

And he realizes, he realizes, the company commander realizes that not true. Going back to the book, perhaps the responsibility had been too much for him. Whatever it was, he was certainly scared despite his success in concealing. the fact the sergeant had run away leaving the platoon to its own devices I was flabbergasted of all the NCOs I had judged this cruel reserved man to be the most dependable a hard taskmaster too ruthless to be popular sergeant Bartholomew had been an effective foil to the easy-going and friendly Doyle and the two men had formed a fine team it was incredible that this should have happened in the light of a flare I studied the sergeant's face

there was nothing to be seen Bartholomew returned my glaze with steady eyes there could be no point in my further destroying the man's self-respect it was possible that he might recover after this first shock his pride taking charge to control his fear so my rebuke was restrained no more than a comment that Bartholomew should have sent Private Jones back with the news and not come himself then I stood up once again told Robert who had appeared by my side to take charge and started down the track toward the forward platoon motioning Bartholomew to accompany me there was no need to say anything to Harrison who automatically rose to his feet his stend

cradled in his elbow ready to shoot so interesting leadership dynamic there instead of saying you coward you quit he doesn't do that instead he he really tones it back and says you should have said Jones instead he's hoping that this guy will recover and this is a great line his pride taking charge to control his fear meaning this guy just has no pride at this point he's trying to keep it together but hopefully the cap the the the company commander is thinking that okay this guy will get it back together hopefully and we'll be able to utilize him as opposed to me just dropping the hammer on him right now in which case he might just completely break and be worthless and the other thing and I I tried to include as much as I could of this guy Harrison that gets mentioned who's sort of the the the company commander's right hand guy but he's just always there always ready always stepping up and making things happen now eventually as all that unfolds were going back to the book nesbit which is one of the guys in that in that

platoon nesbit had decided that it was time to leave and had used the lull to bring back the survivors of the platoon two men were dead while nothing was known of the fate of the two scouts with nesbit were five wounded men two of whom including his officer were being carried leslie in shocking pain from a shattered thigh which morphia had done little to help had fainted after a few yards and was still unconscious. A third of the platoon were casualties. It was bad, but not quite as bad as pictured by Bartholomew. I could not blame Nesbit for withdrawing without permission.

Short of ammunition, with her officer wounded and the platoon sergeant unaccountably missing, the men had heard nothing of the troops behind them for the past hour and had concluded that the battalion must have pulled back. Nesbitt had seen a lot of war, as his D.C. CM one in Crete testified He understood its muddle He knew it was rare for a battle to go as planned His responsibility was to his men to rescue them from what seemed to be a mess

This he had done and his judgment had been correct They were in no place to be caught at daylight Overlooked on a forward slope and unencumbered with wounded men So you see decentralized command and right there nesbit doesn't here doesn't know what's going on he makes a decision I'm getting these guys out of here and what's good is the company commander supports it hey he made a good call that was the right thing to do now at this point they're moving back they're moving back after they've confirmed you know they pushed forward trying to find out where the

Germans were and now they're moving back because they realize that the Germans are absolutely holding strong so they've done this push forward they've got it basically ambushed and now they pulled back after you know like I said confirming where the Germans were back to the book to accomplish this meaning to accomplish finding out where the Germans were to accomplish this had cost us Leslie Doyle and the absent Bartholomew while two men and Doyle's leading section were dead and the two scouts were missing probably either killed or made prisoner seven other men had been wounded including another sergeant this is a total of 13 casualties with another nine men lost when we landed with nothing at all

accomplished over 20 men had already been killed or injured and now the battalion was moving in the wrong direction back the way we had come and you're gonna you're gonna find I mean this is what what makes this story So so devastating is that you know I talk about Murphy's law and things go wrong these guys are complete it's it's just Murphy's law over and over again and and In most of the books that we read on here, there's triumph and there's victory at the end. And you can see right now already where this is heading. We got 20 guys wounded or killed, and instead of moving forward, we're actually moving backward. Back to the book, sooner than expected, we reached the battalion base. It had been cited in a rectangular patch of wood, about 20 acres inside, lying just north of the railway.

It was 2.30 a.m. A horrible hour, especially so if one is tired, cold, and hungry. Thank God it would be starting to get light in a couple of hours. What would happen tomorrow? Something had gone very wrong indeed. By now we should be dug in on the high ground north of Ardenham, waiting for the Germans to counterattack the bridges. Instead, we were sitting here in the woods, only a few miles from where we had dropped, with strong enemies. forces between ourselves and the city where the men of first brigade must be fighting for

their lives wherever one turned there seemed to be German troops and good ones at that the men who had stopped us had not behaved like rear area troops scraped together to put up some sort of resistance but it fought with skill and tenacity the slit trenches were dug and everyone except for the double sentries in each section and the officers and NCOs on duty was sound to sleep. The men hump like dogs, some curled up with a companion for warmth, lying in their full equipment, their weapons tied to their wrists by the slings. I should be asleep too, not sitting and worrying, feeling sorry for myself, but trying to get some rest in preparation for the coming day.

Stand two would be at zero four thirty hours, half an hour before first light, when everyone would be awake and ready in his slit weapon poised for a possible dawn attack so they're dug in and of course It's not looking good at this point They're gonna stand to at zero four 30 which is pretty common. You're gonna be up before the sunrise and you want to be up before the enemy as well Now they get together and get some word here we go back to the book it did not take long It did not take the colonel long to give us our orders the brigade was to renew its effort to reach the bridge and bring relief to the men still fighting there so pretty simple straightforward goal and in order to achieve this goal they set up to do an attack on this little

section of woods where they think there's a bunch of germans and here we go back to the book the leading sections plunged into the wood and disappeared there were no enemy there at all the information from brigade must have been wrong we had attacked and taken an empty position never was there such an anti-climax but never was an anti-climax more welcome now we get a little visit up on the front lines here we go back to the book as the small spare figure stepped out of the first vehicle I realized that it was the first time I had seen the Brigadier commander since we left England he was just the same as ever relaxed and smiling battle was nothing new to him he'd been through the worst of the desert war muddle

in no way disconcerted him, at least not outwardly. It's interesting he uses the term muddle. He's talking about the fog of war, this muddle when you don't really know what's happening. He talks about how the veterans are used to it and accustomed to it and they can deal with it. Muddle in no way disconcerted him, at least not outwardly. He seemed to anticipate it, understanding how judgment and behavior was impaired by danger. wherever he went he inspired confidence with his gentle eyes and friendly manner for regular cavalry officer his background was unusual he'd come to his regiment not from Sandhurst but from

Oxford with a double first and fluency in a half a dozen languages and I love this line right here he wore his learning light meat lightly as he did his decorations meaning this guy is highly educated and highly decorated but you don't even know it. It was rare for soldiers to be aware of officers more senior than the colonels who commanded their battalions, but every man in the brigade could recognize and name the brigadier. The two visitors did not stay long, but their appearance was a tonic for all. It was a reminder that there were able men in charge,

even though the battle was developing in a rather odd manner. Now, as they, as he continues in these, Situation back to the book suddenly my preoccupation my preoccupation with the problems of others ceased There was a familiar wine overhead and I found myself propelled into the half-dug trench all but on top of Galbraith and Robert The action had been a reflex I knew that I had made no conscious decision to jump as I lay there with my Second in commands and trenching tool carving into a ridge in my left buttock the mortar bomb burst about eight feet to the right The scream of the shards of jagged metal passing just overhead flailed my ears as earth and stones spattered down on top of us. The stench of high explosive filled the trench.

My face I found was pressed into the coarse material of Corporal Galbraith's battle trousers. Gingerly raising my head, I peered over the low parapet. At the foot of a tree some 15 yards away lay a motionless heap, a green and khaki bundle. which did not stir jumping out of the trench I ran across and turned over the limp body The head fell back to show the open staring eyes of sergeant Hawks one of the seven platoon section commanders a bright young NCO only just promoted who had been with the battalion since the day it was raised He was another old friend at first. I could see no sign of injury, but then I noticed the small hole in the back of Hawks helmet and the thin stream of blood streaking the back of his neck lying by hug inside I seemed to count seven

explosions all just a little further away than the first but still close enough to smell the hot gases there was a short pause and then as if it were not afterthought an eighth bomb struck the branches of the tree just above us directing its hot metal splinters down to the trenches below a half strangled cry of distress brought my head up just in time to see corporal Pritchard clamber out of his slit and race across the towards the cry his haversack of medical supplies marked with its red cross dangling from his hand the pause lasted no more than a half a minute again the wine again i ducked this was the covering fire for a counterattack or the was this the covering fire for a counterattack or were the bosh merely harassing us spitefully but when i raised my

head from higgins from huggins boots to look around i was relieved to see see one of the seven platoon Bren gunners his helmet and eyes just above the level of the parapet Gazing down the track towards his front So the sentries were still doing their job The fire was not forcing their heads down if there if this was the covering fire for an attack We would not be caught unawares So that's the standard procedure right here for the Germans and really for anyone it's cover move right? We put in big bombs we put in mortars we put in mortars we put Put in artillery and while you're hiding and while you're ducking down so you don't get killed

They maneuver in and then right it right when they get so close That they're in danger of their own artillery the artillery stops and then they proceed with the assault Here we go the lull now there's a lull the lull provided a chance to finish digging There was no longer any need to persuade the men to dig faster the lesson had really been driven home We've been digging for no more than a few minutes when the sound of firing to the north slackened But the noise from the vehicles in front had increased the thought of guns only a few hundred yards away was punctuated by the hammering of brens By the way brens, I don't think I've said this brens are sort of the a weapon of British machine gun Versus the the spandau which is which is the German machine guns and they use the the Brits and the Americans use the term spandau to talk about

basically heavy machine heavier machine guns but but that's what they're talking about when they're talking about spend out and then a brand is the Brit machine gun Both forward platoons were in action and I had placed company headquarters too far back to be able to see what was happening The walkie-talkies were silent also I worried about the sitting of the platoon some 300 yards apart each isolated in its own corner of the woods and unable to support the others of the other's Against a determined attack. This is so important for tactical leaders out there. Think about these lessons.

And these are lessons that I talk about all the time. And these are lessons that I used to have to teach all the time. So you've got your platoons. They're out there doing something. You need to be close enough that you have communications with them so that you actually understands what's happening. And this is the same in the business world. If you put yourself in a position where you can't,

where you don't understand what's happening in the field, then you're not going to be able to help. You're not going to be able to support. You're not going to be able to understand what's happening so you can make decisions. So in this point, he's positioned himself too far away. On top of that, he's positioned his platoons too far apart from each other. So if you're too far apart from each other, you can't cover for each other. If you can't cover, you can't move.

And if you can't move, you can't win. So those are critical points Make sure your command position is close enough Not so close that you're getting in the firefight Not so close that you're pinned down But close enough so that you understand what is happening And then if you have multiple elements in the field You get them close enough to each other

That they can support each other Always He sees a guy running back and here we go back to the book It was Sergeant Pryor One of Nesbit section commanders a rather sulky man able and well-educated but with a grudge against authority in his left hand prior grasped his stend in a grip so firm that the knuckles showed blue under the sunburn his right arm from which clothing had been cut away at the shoulder was thrust into the front of his smock the elbow covered by a blood-stained dressing his face was white with shock and taut with pain a morphia injection was doing little to alleviate the agony of an elbow smashed by a bullet.

The news prior brought was serious. The vehicles which we could hear were Boche armor, driving backwards and forward along the road and sweeping the front of nine platoon's position secure from retaliation. So far, the armor had only claimed prior, but Sergeant Avondale had been killed by a mortar fragment as he dashed across between a couple of trees to put some question to Nesbit.

This inexorable loss of skilled leaders was serious. In our parachute battalions, unlike usual infantry units, section leaders ranked as sergeants, not corporals. Nine platoon had now lost not only its officer, but three of its four sergeants as well. Hawks was dead, and one of seven platoon's section commanders had failed to appear at the rendezvous after the drop. Already nearly half the sergeants had become casualties This is just a nightmare unfolding Back to the book after we'd put the final touches on our slit trenches Time was found to scrape a shallow grave for Sergeant Hawks

It was hard to suppress one's revulsion at touching the body of someone I had known so well But just as I was stealing myself to do so Huggin step forward Ripped open the dead man smock and shirt and slipped one of the two identity discs over the blood-stained head the sergeant major then unbuckled his watch and searched the pockets for anything which might be useful a morphius syringe and a field dressing a bar of chocolate and a couple of mills grenades two packets of cigarettes and a box of matches a couple of maps and a pocket knife

there was nothing personal except for a grubby envelope containing a half a dozen faded and dog-eared snapshots of the stout smiling girl holding a baby before buttoning the envelope into his breast pocket Huggins slipped the identity disc between the photographs I was helping corporal Pritchard shoveled the earth back over Hawks body listening with one ear to Huggins sharing the dead man's ammunition and other possessions among the members of the company headquarters when suddenly I became aware of Jimmy Gray standing beside me apparently anxious to speak but diffident at interrupting

telling Pritchard to finish the job I rose from my knees glad to be able to put my mind to something else When I turned to speak to gray I was disturbed by what I saw The dirt of battle had exaggerated his usual scruffiness His smock and trousers were coated with mud and dust and his right sleeve was stained from top to bottom with blood Not his own as he explained when he saw my eyes fixed on it the front front of of his smock and the battle dress underneath had been torn by a large fragment of a mortar bomb Which in some miraculous fashion had failed to even scratch him Three inches to one side and it would have been set and it would have severed his head

But it was the eyes above the pallid unshaven cheeks which were frightening They were empty of life when he spoke the words were lucid and well chosen as ever but the voice lacked expression the phrases were cold it was not as if you were describing events which he had himself witnessed but something unreal something half imagined be company it attacked at zero eight hundred hours at the start their advance through the woods had gone like the first attack of the morning a calm and steady progress against a seemingly non-existent enemy then some hundred yards short of the objective a swallel the fire had cut down the men of the two leading platoons the half-grown trees and the

sparse undergrowth had neither neither hidden them nor shielded them from the interlocking arcs of the enemy weapons which covered every inch of ground it was just possible that they might have been able to deal with the machine guns alone but the armor was too much for them pumping shells into the men at near point-blank range gray had seen it all happen the colonel had tried to stop the attack as soon as the full strength of the enemy position had become clear, but by then more than half the men of the two leading platoons had been killed or wounded. Both subalterns were dead. The other officers and the CSM had all been wounded.

The colonel had tried to turn the German flank by sending a company around to the left, but there was no flank. The second attack had been a replica of the first. It too had collapsed, but not before some 40 more men were dead or maimed, including two of the four surviving officers. Harry Bates had been terribly wounded in the stomach, and by now was probably dead. As Gray had pulled him behind some cover, his blood had soaked his sleeve. This was not the complete story. There was further bad news. not only had our own attack been shattered but the other battalion to our north had hit similar enemy positions and was making little progress in its efforts to get into arnhem along the main road from somewhere or other the bosh had found enough troops of quality good enough to smash the brigade's attempt to reach the city so we just have a horrible situation unfolding to the book from far away in the

distance came the drum of powerful aeroplane engines. Nesbit was the first to spot the minute shapes, first circling and then diving out of the sun towards us, the noise changing to a shriek as the machine swept down towards the woods. From a half a dozen different directions, a happy shout of spitfires rose from the trenches. At last, some help had arrived from the outside world. The RAF had arrived to give us close air support. And that's, you know, we've had close air support saved the day many times in books that we've talked about on this podcast. As I gaved up at the dozen spits screaming down to strafe the Boche positions on the sloping ridgehead,

Nesbit's voice suddenly roared in my ear, shouting to everyone to get their heads down and hide their faces. As I ducked with the rest, I spotted the black crosses on the wings. The aircraft were not ours, but German Messerschmits. Our air superiority was so overwhelming that it never occurred to anyone that the machines might be hostile. They were not diving onto the enemy positions, but onto our own. I gazed skywards. The Messerschmitt was so close that I could see the pilot's face. Two rockets detached themselves from the wings and swooped down to explode seconds later in the woods.

where the survivors of A and B companies were settling into their new positions. As I ducked once more, there was another scream of engines from behind, followed by the sound of a storm of bullets striking branches on the trees and the other side. Two aircraft which had discharged their rockets were now carrying out a second run, strafing with their machine guns. As I squeezed even closer to the earth at the bottom of the shallow trench, the reverberations of an explosion some 50 yards away, pounded my eardrums it was another rocket suddenly it ended the aircraft had vanished as quickly as they had arrived

Wow yeah because at this point the the the the British and the Americans had almost total air domination And so everyone just completely assumed that oh thank God here comes some spit fires to come and save us and and they were wrong Now the the air we did have air domination for the most part and one of the things that they needed as you as you heard these airborne troops they can only carry so much and so they're they're going to need resupplies they need more ammunitions they need medical gear they need food they need water they need stuff to be dropped to them and so there was a plan in place for them to have gear and food and equipment and ammunition dropped to them at these locations where they were supposed to be because remember

Remember, they were supposed to be making progress this whole time. They're not making progress, but they're supposed to be making progress. And since communication is so bad, they can't call back and say, hey, we're not, we're supposed to be, we're over here, drop the gear on us. But the gear gets dropped in the pre-planned positions, which, of course, are enemy positions. But here's what it sounds like for them, or here's what they're thinking on the ground. Then to the south of us I saw the familiar shape of a line of Dakota is approaching at about a thousand feet

In a minute the sky was crammed with them It was the first supply drop About which we had been told At the briefings But the drop zone was a couple miles away Over the other side of the hill Right in the middle of enemy positions By now of course

The division should have captured the area But the Boche still held it News of the progress of the battle could not have reached the RAF or the pilots would have diverted to drop their supplies elsewhere. Now, they can see this happening. And the people that are in the planes, they're called the RASC, the Royal Army Service Corps. They run basically the supply and the logistics and help resupply and drop this equipment. So this is, as he's watching all these.

The Dakotas are these little transport planes. It's actually what they had parachuted out of and now they're watching them drop this resupply Back to the book among the mass a single Dakota just overhead caught my attention It had already been hit and flames were creeping down from the starboard engine toward the cockpit As it lost height the khaki-clad RASC dispatchers were standing at the open doorway pushing out the panieres of supplies those are the bags of supplies I could see their faces the fire was on their side of the plane the wing was burning before their eyes the Dakota was now little more than 300 feet above the ground if the men at the door jumped now they might just save themselves in a second or two more the aircraft would be so low that their

parachutes would not have time to open This the men must have known. But they went on with their routine drill, pushing out the panieres, regardless of what would happen to them. Then the starboard wing crumpled. The flaming plane disappeared beyond the trees. The panierre still falling from the open door. The sky was empty.

The last plane had gone, but we still stood watching the place where the Dakota had vanished, mourning the futility of the self-rengthy. sacrifice we had just witnessed. I can't even imagine that guys just continuing to do their job, knowing their fate. At their senior officers at this point and their NCOs are starting to get hit pretty regularly by snipers. And so he decides, he tells his guys, hey, take your rank off your uniform because I don't

want the enemy to know and he tells us to one of his one of his leaders named name name Robert and he says as I watched Robert slip his captain stars off his shoulders and tucked them away in his pocket I knew for certain that my second in command disapproved officers should show themselves as such so one of his guys is thinking no we're officers we need to we need to stand out we need to stand up now I'm I mentioned the American forces, the 82nd and the 101st and the British forces. There was also a Polish parachute brigade that was coming in on this attack as well. And they were scheduled to come in a little bit later as reinforcements.

And here we go back to the book. Only then did I remember that the glider-born part of the Polish parachute brigade was due to land that afternoon upon the stretch of enemy upon the stretch of open country below us at the same time as the parachute battalions were dropped in the Polderland south of Ardenham bridges the landing zone was already a battlefield and the wretched poles were about to land in the middle of it first the gliders hit the ground its massive weight tearing up chunks of stubble as it skidded to a halt lurching onto one wing as it did so men jumped out and rushed to the rear and to release the tail unit so that the vehicles inside could

be driven out two more gliders were now plowing across the ground another exploded in the air in a vast ball of yellow flame just as it was upon the point of touching down mortar bombs were bursting among the men struggling to release their loads while streams of chase tracer bisected the scene into oddly formal patterns another glider was on fire on the ground as still more swooped in to land adding to the chaos the poles were now joining in the battle themselves some firing toward the Germans some towards the KOSB which is a the king's own Scottish borders it's a it's another British unit and some in the direction of our other battalion it must be impossible for the Poles to distinguish enemy from friend they probably

thought they had landed in a circle of Boche units all intent upon their destruction in a few minutes it was all over from the wrecked and flaming gliders which now littered the ground small parties of Poles were making their escape, firing at anything they saw move. Two or three vehicles had been driven away, but otherwise they had failed to drag their jeeps and guns from the gliders. The Polish anti-tank battery no longer existed as a fighting unit. It had landed in the middle of a battle and been destroyed before it could fire a single shot.

Waste. It was waste once again. Waste like the supply drop. Nothing seemed to go right. A knot of some eight poles charged towards us intent on seeking shelter either in the woods or behind the safety of a railway embankment. Some 30 yards away, one man slightly ahead of the others, must have noticed our camouflage steel helmets in the slit trenches ahead and shouted a warning.

In a bunch, they flung themselves into the undergrowth. Anticipating what would happen, I yelled to everyone to get their heads down just as a hail of bullets from the poles whistled over our heads. a few hitting the trench parapets, but most striking the trees well above our heads, as the excited men emptied their weapons in our direction. So long as we kept our heads down, we were safe from the Polish fire, but the worry was that some of them might creep closer and start to fling grenades around. However, in a couple of minutes, the firing slackened and then ceased.

Possibly the polls sensed that something might be wrong when no one retaliated. The comparative silence provided the opportunity to shout a warning, across the narrow stretch of ground which separated us there was no reply and I shouted once again in faltering English a voice inquired who we were firmly the company sergeant major huggins told them the polls seemed to understand after a few seconds of audible consultation they rose to their feet and walked across so you got a just a chaotic situation the polls land they're getting attacked from all directions and sure enough they're shooting at the friendly force blue-on-blue happening once he gets them settled down he's got some people some of these Polish folks that now have no leadership back to the book calling Douglas over I told him that he now had a fourth section in seven platoon and within a few minutes the polls were digging hard under the tutelage of their corporal the only comprehensible part of whose name sounded like Peter the digging had hardly started when a jeep roared down the track in the

direction from the direction of the battalion headquarters As it break to stop in the cover of the trees, Jimmy Gray jumped out and ran towards us. Gray's news was startling. We were all to withdraw to Wolfhazen in 15 minutes time. One could not just stand up and walk away from an enemy right on one's heels. In daylight, the only way to withdraw was to move by bounds with platoons and companies covering one another back. Any other plan was madness. Things over in the north must be bad indeed for the colonel to be wrong.

rushed in this way, but Gray's instructions were unshakable. So they're digging in, they're getting ordered, get out of here, we're going to leave. And he's saying, okay, that's fine, but guess what? Even when you leave, you still use the fundamental principle of cover and move. And that's what he's wanting to do. So now they're on the retreat, and here we go back to the book, the pace was far too quick. Some men were all but running to keep up.

As I had expected, little by little, cohesion was starting to break down. Some of the men of the mortar platoon had overtly. taken us despite the weight of the loads and were mixed in among us. There were two small groups from another unit in the middle of seven platoon. From somewhere in the front, a long way off, a Spandau spent, sent its bullets flying harmlessly overhead, but men were looking apprehensive and flinching. We were now under fire from two different directions. At any minute the Boch would find the range, and then the slaughter would begin. It was no longer an orderly retreat. The withdrawal was taking on the nature of a horde of men seeking safety.

Soon discipline would crack and everyone would start to run. What a target we must be. Some 500 men from four or five different units rapidly coalescing into a solid moving mass. Yeah, this is just a nightmare. And you can imagine it's an individual thing and you're going to see some great leadership examples, but it's an individual thing because if you can keep the teams working together, covering and moving for each other, that's good. That's good. You're going to keep the enemy's heads down. But if people in the group start saying, you know what, I'm not going to cover. I'm going to run. And now no one's covering. And now you've got a bunch of people that are moving and no cover. And that's when you're going to get slaughtered. Not only going to get slaughtered by people that are shooting at you. But if you're not putting down cover fire, the enemy maneuvers. They don't just sit there. I mean, some of them will be shooting, but they'll be shooting. But other elements of them are going to move. And they're going to be able to cut you off. They finally do make it back and they get a little bit of luck here here we go back to the book we caught our

breath in the wood so they get to a woods david's men had disappeared and there was no sign of the colonel or of the battalion headquarters no one had followed us we were the last across but a quick check told me that only robert watson the csm and three or four other men were missing in addition to seven platoon of the latter there was nothing to be seen in all there were still about 50 men with me not counting Peter and his seven poles still clinging tenaciously to us. Perhaps I should try to get back across the bullet-spattered embankment to find out what had happened to the others. But the noise of the battle was getting louder.

The bosh must be closing in. The vital thing must be to rejoin the rest of the battalion with the 50 men I still had and not to leave them in Luke Tyler's charge while I returned on what could be a foolhardy errand. But it was difficult to avoid the thought that perhaps I was reluctant to climb back over the top of that embankment. So he does make it to this woods, but he doesn't have everybody with him. And he's questioning himself, should I go back over there and risk it or not? And part of his, part of his rationalizing, you know, the best thing to do is get back with the rest of the battalion.

But part of him is saying, you're rationalizing this. And you're just not, you're being a coward. But he does he he proceeds on with the time he knows he gonna get killed if he goes over that he can hear the enemy coming So back to the book ten minutes later we found the remnants of the battalion Half of a company the mortars and what was left of the machine guns were still were missing as well as our own seven platoon More than one third of the men who had withdrawn from the woods had failed to cross the railway We were now down to no more than a couple of hundred men so We're going we're down to a couple of hundred men from five or six hundred men in the battalion

Maybe even a little bit more maybe there might have been 700 men in the battalion They get word once again Here's what's going to happen tomorrow at first light the brigade would move on to Oosterbeak to join the rest of the division But unless ammunition together with air and artillery support was forthcoming the prospects were far from good We were, it seemed, not opposed by a few third-line troops. Elements of three SS-Panser divisions had been identified in the battle. The Germans seemed to have moved quickly or else something had gone wrong with the intelligence. It was not surprising that the days fighting had been so very bitter.

So they're pointing out that they weren't going against, you know, third-rate troops. They were going against SS-Panser divisions, the best of the German soldiers. in talking with Sergeant Major Bauer and Sergeant Nesbit before I reached Tyler's platoon I had done my best to be as cheerful as possible but it was plain that the two NCOs realized that I was making the best of things with Luke Tyler it was different I could not insult him by trying to disguise our straits I just told him the facts as I had received them from the colonel possibly it was a mistake Quite suddenly, the failure of it all oppressed me.

In less than 36 hours, two-thirds of the battalion had gone. Fifteen rifle company officers had landed. Only two were left. Ten for certain had either been killed or wounded. The chances of surviving another day were small. Fatigue and hunger had drained me. There was a need to unburden myself. Luke was junior in my rank, but equal in years, and in any case it was easier to confide in someone who was in many ways a stranger.

Even as I spoke, I was ashamed of this weakness. But there was no stopping. Quietly, Luke gave me the reassurance I needed. The iron needed to sustain oneself through such a day was easily expended, and I felt that I had preloined some of Luke's share. So he Basically unloads to one of his guys or to one to another another officer below him in rank But what I think is interesting about this is he needed someone to talk to He was holding it all inside and wasn't saying anything and trying to look positive and even he's looking at his guys as he's telling him don't worry Jents we're gonna be okay

And his guys are looking at him like hey, no, we don't believe you and so he has to he feels the need to unload on someone and that's why you know I just think from my perspective You know, we always talk about relationships that you have on your team and for sure in your platoon or in your team It's really good to have someone that you can just kind of unload on that you know is professional enough to bolster you up without getting dragged down into your negativity and and a lot of times I've found if if you have someone like that or maybe a couple people like that in your team that you can talk to Well, guess what? Sometimes they're going to be bolstering your attitude and sometimes you're going to be bolstering their attitude.

And so you got to find someone like that that's in your team that you can say, man, this is this is horrible, this is going wrong. And someone's going to go, hey, you know what? It's not that bad. We're going to get through it. And then two or three days later, he might come into you and saying, hey, this is a horrible situation. I can't believe this.

And you're going to say, no, man, we're going to be all right. So I think it's important. And that's, again, we're building relationships. But that's one of the reasons we build relationships. They get into a holdup position back to the book. on stand two rounds I found the Polish trenches empty except for Peter their corporal crouched grimly behind his brin The rest of the party had vanished in the early hours sensing perhaps that they had attached themselves to an unlucky unit Peter explained nothing but his embarrassment was clear

It was both unfair and pointless to press him for details when either pride or sense of duty had kept him there to fight among strangers The thought of what would have happened if the enemy had attacked from this direction against a position held by one solitary man was chilling It was a mistake to trust strangers I had learned yet another lesson Rely on only those you knew again. It's interesting how he sometimes backs off Instead of pressing where you guys he knows it's like what what point is that or when Bartholome was was running away he didn't press him super hard and you're gonna get to point there's point in here when he does press people but here he's deciding he's not gonna do it and the other interesting

thing is here it says I learned another lesson rely you know not to trust strangers rely on only those you know what you have to do in those situations is you have to put someone that you do trust embed them with these units that you don't know so if he would have taken and he gave these he gave that section to one of his platoon commanders and said hey you got another section now but Maybe embed one more guy or two more guys in there or split these guys up even more so instead of seven and one big bulk you put two or three there two or three there two or three there now you've split them up a little bit and you can have better control over them It's weird. There's you know this opportunity to desert though and these guys took the opportunity Sure now

The fighting rages on and obviously I Have to fast forward through some of it and they eventually get into A little village a little small village and they've they've taken down they've taken some buildings and here we go They're in these buildings Back to the book we were in a mess The bosh were on the other side of the valley outnumbered and outgunned us There was not the slightest hope of reaching the back of the breed line this way and to stay here on this forward slope was impossible at this rate We would all be dead

or wounded soon. Somehow I had to get the survivors back up the hill, but it was a near insuperable problem with the men scattered down among the houses, lawns and shrubberies shot at every time they moved. Someone called from the side of the house. As I turned and looked, Private Gregory darted across to throw himself down beside me.

Under the dirt and two days scrub of beard, his face was grayish white. He seemed about to vomit. As Gregory stammered out his platoon commander's name, I knew what had happened. Lieutenant Tyler was dead. It must have happened just after we parted. Luke had been killed on the steep garden path which led from the house down the road. He'd been hit by a sniper, killed outright by a bullet through the heart within a couple yards of the place where Gregory was lying.

Possibly Luke had been careless because he was still dazed, but he had been careless. had to get back to his platoon and the path was his only route so they had been together and they'd been hit by some kind of artillery in the house and it rattled them and then Luke had gone out to get back back to his platoon and when he left he got shot by a sniper back to the book this was how officers and NCOs were killed just doing their routine job this was why casualties among the leaders were so high all the time that they were moving about checking here encouraging there backwards and forwards now besides myself and only the quartermaster sergeant bower and sergeant whiner were left all the rest of the officers and sergeants

in the company had gone one problem however had been solved the remnants of tyler's two forward sections had managed to extricate themselves without waiting for orders since last night Private Gregory had been in charge of one of the other sections both the NCOs having been hit the day before During that last mortar stonk a bomb and fallen right on top of the corporal who is commanding the other section Blowing him and his Bren gunner half to pieces Common sense had told the survivors to quit and there had been no one to stop them except Gregory Who for the moment was shaken by the sight of what had happened to his friends and who in any case Lacked the authority to hold them there

No one else had been hit and scrambled back and the survivors were now sheltering in the house. So they're in these houses and for the first time you're going to hear the company commander start to realize he's got people at their breaking point. Back to the book, the others were as uneasy as I was. For the first time, I was unhappy about them. Until now, they had endured the successive disasters, but the events of the morning had tried them too far. It had been yesterday once again, yet another failure against an enemy who was far too strong for us. Men were looking jittery. Some could be well near their breaking point.

As I gazed down the slope trying to spot some activity among the bosh, a movement to the right caught my eye. About 20 yards away, two of Kelly's men were moving diagonally behind me, sheltered on the far side of the ridge. These are deserters. My shout made them hesitate and then stop after two or three more steps Forgetting the enemy I stood up and strode down towards them No explanation was necessary the surly guilt on their faces was enough Deliberately choosing words for effect I cursed them in language rarely used by officers towards their soldiers It was enough the two men turned back towards their platoon so like I said some

He's there he's dropping the hammer these two guys are trying to desert and he goes on and and drops the hammer on him and gets them back with their platoon back the book in this mood the men would never stand up to an enemy attack Even a mortar stonk could break them I could see it happening First one or two men would slip away like the two I had just stopped and then a rush would follow Something drastic had to be done no more than the occasional rifle bullet was now coming over in fact no one had been hit since we took our positions along this ridge it seems safe enough standing up I began to walk along the path towards the left of our position for the first few steps I felt wretchedly vulnerable but then an odd exhalation seized me for the first few

steps I felt wretchedly vulnerable but then an odd exhilaration seized me Not too slowly and not too quickly, I strode deliberately toward the first group of men. Grinning down at Lance Corporal Williams, I made some inept remark about it being the wrong place for a company clerk. If I were to be hit, it would happen anyway. Now seemed to be as good a time as ever. Stopping at each group of men, I checked their firing positions and made necessary changes. Then I was at the end of Kelly's line and I started back, conscious that everyone was watching. There was a burst of machine gun fire well wide of us, but I managed to avoid flinching at it.

Suddenly, Sergeant Weiner's voice, harsh with concern, was yelling at me to get down, demanding angrily what I was playing at. The spell broke. I was grateful for the excuse to lower myself down beside him, very relieved that it was over. The rage in Weiner's face dissolved into an unaccustomed grin. the corny dramatics were over but they had served their purpose the men had got a grip on themselves so he basically stood up and walked around

and talked to everyone and made himself visible and made himself appear to not be scared to get the guy's heads back in the game until his sergeant whiner yells at him and says hey dude get down when these guys dessert like the deserers

Where do they go? So they can head back towards the areas that have been secured. So as this beachhead, you know, we landed D-Day, June 6th. This is now in September. So, you know, coalition forces or, sorry, allied forces had pushed into France. So if you could walk back, you could eventually get to friendly lines. Yeah. And that's what their plan was.

And then what? When you get there, don't they know, hey, you deserted your thing? Well, you'd say, you know, you'd say, oh, I was, I got to. separated from my troops when I parachuted in I couldn't find my people or whatever you make up your lie and you deal with it later Because right now you're thinking I'm not gonna make it Yeah, I just don't want that be It was clear why nothing We had heard nothing from battalion headquarters for the past two hours like everyone else the signal the signal

The signallers orderlies and clerks had been fighting for their own survival The Germans were all around them and had been pressing them hard throughout the morning so they're not getting any information about what's happening This is This is interesting He goes back to get They end up with a little extra ammunition And he goes back to get some ammunition

From the battalion they have got it like staged In the battalion headquarters And as he's doing this He he The ammunition was in a Jeep And so he goes to the Jeep He finds the Jeep And he's with one of his other guys

And the regimental sergeant major Is sitting basically on top of Jeep on top of the ammunition and he kind of is looking at the guy you know saying hey I'm here I'm an officer I got a platoons out there and a company out there I got to get them ammunition and he doesn't really move he just kind of sits there and so finally here he was but here the regimental sergeant major was in the middle of battle sitting on his arse and taking his ease while a company commander hunted for ammunition majors are not in the habit of rebuking regimental sergeant majors but this was too much the

tensions of the morning had snapped myself restraint and in a couple of succinct sentences i told the r s the regimental sergeant major what i thought of him then the the regimental sergeant major apologized but he did not move without any trace of irony or annoyance in his voice he quietly explained that he could not stand up because he had been shot through both legs i had not noticed the airborne smock with which someone had covered his outstretched and bandaged legs think before you act now they're on their way they're heading finally to this area of ooster beak they're on their patrol and here we go back to the book a spandau opening up ahead sent us all to the ground men diving for cover just a little too quickly a moment later a

second gun fired on us from the right but it was the It was the ominous rattle of the tracked vehicles which chilled the first one then another then two more quite close and in front their engine clatter rising above the din of the machine gun and rifles then some 70 yards away I saw the first of the SP guns it's stubby wepping traversing slowly towards us SP guns are they're kind of like tanks it's self-propelled guns they're like artillery pieces with tracks on them The flash from its stout was one of with the explosion of the bursting shell just to the right a half-grown tree shattered into jagged splinters a second shot falling hard on the first one covered Harrison and me with earth We were swamped by the noise every sort of weapon seemed to be firing Grenades were exploding but the distinct above the rest was the clank and the throaty cough of the armored guns Caught like this in the open we were helpless Tanks plowing among about among us could have been no worse

There was no way of fighting back no one to seem to have even a peat Which is like their bazooka anti-armor weapon and we could not get close enough to use the gammon bombs the bags of plastic Exposive carried for the for use against armor. So that's another little it's like a big bag of explosives that you can put on a on a armored vehicle to destroy it. They call them gammon bombs The men in front The men in front were moving again. I stood up and signaled those behind to follow We were doubling now, but there was still some sort of control. We were not running away, but making for somewhere Where I did not know

Then about a hundred yards away I caught a glimpse through the trees of a German half track. It stopped and helmeted shapes jumped from its sides How many more of them were there? This could be the start of another attack Which could only end at all our will to fight back was all but broken. Then I heard the brigadier telling me to clear the enemy out of the hollow, after which the survivors of the brigade would join us there. Sea Company, it seemed, was the last organized body of troops.

So they're looking at this area, this open area where there's some enemy, but it looks like it's a good position. Of course, their will to fight is just about broken. And you hear the brigadier is saying, Hey, take your company and clear out that hollow go Back to the book for a moment I was so dumbfounded that I hardly heard the brigadier going on to say that the brigade major was dead as well killed about five minutes ago Another friend was gone but I hardly listened What was the brigadier ordering us to do in his quiet and determined fashion? It was absurd

The men were finished only a few minutes ago I had realized that they were past defending themselves Now we were being told to assault that Boche position. The brigadier's look was both quizzical and encouraging. The confounded man could see what was passing through my mind. Then I was away, dodging back and through the bushes towards the men in the ditch, even more aware than ever before of the bullets singing overhead. With my back to a broad tree which hid me from the enemy front, I looked down at the upturned faces.

There was no point in wasting at all in wasting time on details. The orders I had to give them were quite simple, devoid of any complications such as who would provide covering fire. It was time for play acting again. My naturally loud voice carrying down the line of men above the sound of battles, I bawled at them to follow me, adding the comment that is better to be killed going for the bastards than lying in that bloody ditch. No one hesitated. The men rose to their feet at the moment I stepped out into the open from behind the shelter of the tree. Glancing to my right, I was exhilarated by the sight of David Unwin's solid bulk running parallel to me and half a dozen of his men following. David shouted something to the effect that they were coming as well, and I waved my stend gun in acknowledgement.

Behind me, Sergeant Weiner broke into a scream of rage, harsh and furious. The yell spread down the line. Too heavily laden and too tired to sprint. We lumbered forward towards the enemy in a sort of jog trot. Now I was careless of everything. We did not stand a chance, but this was the right way to go. This was the proper way to finish it all. Nearly hysterical now with rage and excitement, I heard my own voice join in the screaming.

The Germans were shooting at us. I could see flashes of their weapons springing out of the gloom of the trees. There was no need to look back to confirm that the line of men was still following. The noise told me they were there. Now the bosh were no more than 50 yards away. As I brought my stend down to hip level to press the trigger, it flashed through my mind that it was the first time I had fired my weapon since the battle started. My forefinger squeezed the metal.

Nothing happened. It had jammed. Here I was running toward the enemy with a useless piece of, metal in my hands there were figures moving among the trees first a couple then a half dozen dark shapes were outlined against the green background men sprinting away men disappearing through the trees the bosh were running away we had done it we had driven the enemy out at the point of bayonet this was the ultimate in war the sight of the savage screaming parachutists streaming towards them had been

too much for the Germans even though they had to do nothing more than keep their heads and shoot straight. Yeah. So there you go. Surrounded, broken, and I think key point here, when you're, think you're broken, do something and do something aggressive. That's the, that's the, this is, this is 100% default aggressive. That's what this is.

You know what? We're here. We're being defensive. We're hiding in our slit chentches. Okay. You know what we're gonna do? We're going to attack. We're going to attack full force Yeah back to the book the site of David on the right added to my delight Shouting to him to hold the right of the hollow I directed sergeant Weiner round to the left

There was no need to tell anyone to hurry They all knew that the Germans would not delay in mounting a counter attack A moan of terror distracted me I turned to the wounded German the man's features were contorted it into a rictus of despair I Above him stood Sergeant Major Kelly, red-eyed and panting his bayonet raised above the soldier's stomach. But Kelly did not strike. He was relishing the moment, snatching maximum pleasure from the wounded man's anguish before he sliced it sliced into the soft belly. As my newly found Mauser knocked the bayonet to one side, the sergeant majeaned at me in an unspoken protest at such silly. scruples then he seemed to shake himself the bloodlust has had passed and he came to his senses gathering his men to the defenses so again he could this guy goes from the pure fury

and rage of this in incredible bayonet assault and then he immediately just puts his one of his sergeant majors in check who's about to you know writ ruthlessly kill this wounded guy mm hmm very interesting dichotomy there back to the book something had been snatched back from the disasters of the day the remnants of the brigade headquarters together with a few stragglers from other units had now all arrived in all there seemed to be about a hundred and fifty men with a half a dozen officers as well as the brigadier David and myself there was Jimmy gray the latter brought news that the

colonel was probably dead although he could not be sure as they'd become separated during a scrimmage with an SP gun of the rest of the officers who had jumped with the battalion captain John Simmons the gunner forward observer was the only left one left continuing after about 15 minutes a lull in shooting suggested that I might now be able to get around to visit the battalion positions the battalion for the first time it struck me that I was now in command of what was left of it pitiful remnants but they are still fighting The brigadier had allotted the south and west sides of the perimeter to us. The first pit held Sergeant Weiner with seven or eight men.

At the bottom, his eyes shut lay a gray-faced and motionless private Gregory shot through his stomach. Corporal Pritchard had bandaged him up and given him a shot of Morphia, but because his airborne smock had been pulled down over his bloodstained dressing to keep as warm as possible, he lay there with no outward sign of injury looking as a man might do who had collapsed with exhaustion Gregory's eyes opened when he saw who was standing over him he asked for the favor his voice was quiet his words measured and coherent his proposal quite logical out here without the help of a doctor he was going to die in any case and he could stand the pain no longer would someone please put a bullet through his head for the moment my grip tightened on the Mouser

in Gregory's state I probably would have been asking for the same release if it did happen I hope that someone would have the guts to give it to me then I caught whiner's eye and he knew that I could not do it the only way to help Gregory was to give him a further shot of morphia dangerous though it would be to do so. As I reached for my own ampule

in the breast pocket of my smock, I was ashamed by my reluctance. The reason was purely selfish. Sooner or later, I might want to use it on myself, wounded and alone behind a bush with no one about to help me. But Sergeant Weiner came to the rescue. He had scrounged a couple,

a supply of ampules from somewhere or another. Opening the small black tin, he bared Gregory's arm and pressed the needle home. The words of sympathy and encouragement sounded pitifully trite as I pressed Gregory's shoulder. Nervous of any reproach which I might

see, I turned and walked away without looking at the wounded man's face. My name was being called. It was Private Jones. Slythering towards me down the opposite slope of the hollow, Jones told me quickly. It was Major Unwin,

killed by a sniper shot through the forehead as he was peering over the rim of the hollow trying to locate the whereabouts of a spando machine gun he had died instantly Jones was adamant there was no doubt that he was dead his brains had been blown out Jones was urging me to come see his body but I could not bring myself to do so David could not be dead they could not have killed David everyone else yes one after another friends had died but I never believed that this could happen to David so vast so indestructible the humorous gentle David the brigadier was beside me he had also heard the news for nearly two years he had known us both and it was plain that he understood

the anguish but there were other things to think about as we knew only too well the brigadier told us our ammunition was nearly finished and as our own fire slackened the enemy snipers were becoming bolder and more men were being hit soon would be forced to surrender so he had decided to take the initiative we would break out towards Oosterbeak charging through the enemy in solid mass trusting our numbers and impetus to get through it was an extraordinary plan for the second time that day the was ordering us to do what seemed impossible But our trust in the brigadier's judgment was now implicit. It was a gamble, but one which offered at least a chance of success

To stay here would only end one way Fifteen minutes later we were ready It could have been the start of a race the brigadier asked whether we were ready then at his shout the hundred of us rose to our feet and exploded in a solid mass over the lip of the hollow and In front was the brigadier himself leading the way. Behind came the yelling, screaming men, filthy and blood-stained, weapons in their hands, bayonets dull and menacing, a fearful sight to anyone in our path. The German fire now seemed to be coming from every direction, but I saw no one hit. We were rushing downhill along a lane, a solid human battering ram.

The first wild pace slackened. The firing stopped. We had done it. We were through the enemy and out of the forest. For the second time that day, boldness had saved us. Once again, some default aggressive activity. And, I mean, obviously, I want to make it clear that in both these situations, it wasn't a call of, hey,

There's a there's a There's an objective we want to reach charge it It was we can either sit here and do nothing and die or we can attack That's that that's the big I don't want anyone out there thinking. Oh, okay, I'm just gonna every time Default aggressive I'm gonna run and we're gonna attack no These are situations where the alternative to attacking is is being defensive laying down and dying and continue to get picked off And snipers until you get overrun Yeah

now they meet up with finally they they meet up with these other British troop back to the book someone was leading us into a garden of a large house the men dropped to the ground as they halted conscious that they were now safe with houses and other British troops around them others after a swig from a water bottle lay supine unconscious in instant sleep I counted them Jimmy Gray John Simmons and sergeant Weiner were there sergeant major Kelly was missing Someone had seen him fall in the rush. There were just 49 other men, about half from Sea Company. Last night, there had been 200.

The night before, 500. Now they're in these positions, and they're about to get attacked. Just below in the garden, but out of sight, another Bren opened up. It was Jimmy Gray's sentry at the garden gate. There was a glimpse of a camouflage figure running through the trees opposite, no more than 100 yards away, diagonally across our front towards the air landing troops then a couple more jimmies brend fired again and one of the figures pitched forward rolling over carried on by its own momentum we would not we would have to fight and this is there they're talking he's talking about the fact that they're

in the houses now in these in this village we would have to fight from the house itself not from the trenches in the garden it was a sturdy building with thick solid walls and in any case the garden was too small for the purpose from these upper windows we would have an extra range an observation to fire diagonally down the road in front of the houses held by units to the left and right 15 minutes later the trim Dutch house had been wrecked every pane of glass had been smashed and every picture and mirror knocked from the walls there was no time to be careful in the center of each room barricades had been built well back from the windows out of sight of the

bosh but sited so that every scrap of ground outside was covered sideboards and chests of drawers stuffed with books or bedding made the barricades contents of the furniture flung in heaps into the corners of the rooms mattresses were rolled down to the basement ready for use if needed by wounded men more books crammed into drawers were blocking those windows not required for shooting through fortunately the owner of the house possessed a fine library from its contents seemed it was a doctor With gray I walked around the house for a final check before leaving to return to my own headquarters at the rear

Manic vandals might have swept through it some woman's life work ruined in the time it took to drink a cup of coffee An explosion from above followed by the clatter of tiles falling from the roof drowned out the noise from the gun another bomb burst in the garden just outside the window sending a couple fragments whistling into the room now the bosh were hitting us with mortars as well a bull A bullet splintered of the empty frame behind me and buried itself in the ceiling, a warning that I was far too close to the back bedroom window. There was a sniper behind us as well as the Spandau. A quick movement in the garden of the house caught my eye. Then two figures in the wrong sort of camouflage darted from behind a bush into the shelter of a wall. They were Boche, not British.

So now the enemy was indeed all around us. There was no doubt about it now. John Simmons and his men were in the houses where they had been left that morning. John had made strong points out of a couple of houses, smaller but just as robust as the ones held by Gray. The two groups had been working closely together. Largely, I felt certain because of John's charm of manner and determination. This young gunner had done very well. It hardly seemed possible that most of his men hardly knew him by sight yesterday.

Today he has welded the survivors of four different companies of a unit into of another arm into a tight-knit entity Well capable of carrying on the fight all day they had held firm killing and wounding quite a lot of enemy But losing only one man themselves a corporal of a company whose hand had been blown in half by a flying mortar splinter Lined and filthy though his face was eyes red rimmed and chin stained with three days worth of fair fuzzy down John still moved briskly a reminder to all of us that we could still keep going so he's got guys that are stepping up big time inside the houses we felt reasonably safe from the shells and bullets but there was always some cause for the officers and senior NCOs to move about in the open from one building to another it was the same as it had been in the

woods the officers and sergeants stood a traitor greater chance of being killed or wounded as their men all the same it was easier for an officer with so much to do he had little time to worry about his own safety also he always had to try and act the part to set an example to the others an officer had to exude confidence however hard it might be but because he always had to try to keep a grip on himself it helped him forget the danger very true very true got a lot of things on your mind they get a massive bombardment in these positions that they're in back to the book the Germans must be softening us up in preparation for something more serious their ammunition seemed unlimited the

bombardment ended quite suddenly rather as it had started this would be it nudging Williams to get his head up from behind the barricade I shouted a warning to the others Elkins and Bauer in the next room and the two signallers who had moved up to the bedroom at the back the stutter of the Bren gun cut across the word the words Bowers rifle thudded next door and then Williams was firing a succession of bursts from his Bren gun in the orchard opposite Germans were running through the trees towards us several dropped this could only be the start of an attack now from either flank the sound of rifles and machine guns reached us accompanied by the thud of exploding grenades

The attack was coming in all along our front. Some of the Germans among the fruit trees were firing back a couple of rifle bullets splintered the front of the wardrobe Then more gray figures were lumbering towards us through the trees some fell others ducked behind the puny trees They didn't stand a chance it was like shooting targets on the press practice range The Germans and the mortars had been forced to stop because their troops were so close it was so close it was So it was impossible to fire slow carefully aimed shots with little or no distraction The only way out of the orchard was through the single gap in the high fence but the enemy soldiers never got within 20 yards of it A tall German officer was standing in the middle of the drive out in the open clear of the trees

Waving his arms to the men behind him no more than 50 yards away every day detail of his face in uniform was clearly visible he was a handsome young man fair haired and smartly turned out already he'd been standing there for about five seconds encouraging his men to advance as I leveled my sights on the German officer I knew that I was looking at someone who is just about to die it seemed a pity he was such a courageous boy just the sort just the sort of just the sort one would like to have had as a platoon commander. My finger started to squeeze the trigger, but it was too late.

Someone else had fired. The German fell, spread-eagled, and lay still. At least he died quickly. The death of the young officer marked the end of the attack. Now, no one moved in the orchard except for a single wounded man squirming his way back through the trees. So it's interesting when you, you take the leader and the leader goes down and the attack's over.

Now, also it's important to note that although the leader stood up and encouraged the attack by taking that risk of being out there in front of everyone, in this case, it didn't work out well because he got shot, killed, and the attack faltered. Perhaps if he could have found a little bit better of a position to do that from, then then maybe then maybe he would have been able to encourage his troops and stay alive Back to the book but we had one no more than a temporary respite 15 minutes later we could hear the unnerving noise once again tracks were clattering towards us So I haven't I don't know why I haven't talked about this yet but here you have these airborne troops on the ground

and their biggest fear is tanks and and you You've heard me talk many times about my love for tanks and how effective and awesome they are as tools and as weapons and the way that the tankers utilize them. They're just, they're just awesome machines. But here you have the tables turned and the good guys don't have any effective way of stopping these tanks. You can shoot a machine gun all day long at a panzer tank and it's not going to do a damn thing And so it can just and by the way you hide in a building cool a tank will go right through a building They go right through buildings They will go right through a building like it looks like a construction piece of heavy equipment

That's what it looks like it'll go right through a building like it's nothing So these guys are absolutely horrified of the tank showing up that's their fear Tracks were clattering toward us a gun fudded and the dark red house opposite began to fall apart as round after round crashed into it muzzle flashes from the far side of the orchard revealed the position of the attacker but there was nothing we could do at least the men were not waiting in the house but slipping one after another out the door back across the road to the headquarter house on either side the guns were firing now it was our turn the the tank wrecks some of the houses and then it the tank leaves so here we go it's it was time to strike back the tanks had gone and as yet the boche did not appear to have occupied the houses lying out

there in the rear gardens overlooked from the windows we were vulnerable indeed Soon the mortaring would start again. Then we would be safer back in the ruined buildings. As John Simmons listened to the instructions, the young captain's manner was as relaxed as ever. Calm and outwardly self-confident, he somehow managed to give the impression that he was almost enjoying the morning's work.

Possibly he was making that a point, subconsciously perhaps, that a gunner could always take charge of 30 infantry men. But there were undoubtedly immense, reserves of strength hidden behind that cool exterior. As he lay behind the bed of half-dead pea plants, scanning the houses for any sign of German occupants, there was no trace of disquiet in his voice as he discussed his orders to counterattack and clear the street of the enemy.

Fifteen minutes after John had gone, I was still in the same place in the vegetable patch watching the second hand of my watch creep towards the top of the dial. Then Gray's weapon opened up on the right, firing down. back in the back into the rooms of the houses more in the hope of distracting the enemy than providing covering fire the danger to John's men lay on the other side the front of the houses now John's three brand guns were firing as well on the left the assault party would soon be moving into the street it came the sustained rattle of a spandau gun first one then a second After that, there was silence, except for one or two rifle shots. I waited, lying in the vegetable patch, almost distraught with worry. Something was badly wrong.

Nothing could be seen from here, but I had to resist the temptation of going to find out for myself what had happened. I must avoid getting involved in the skirmish. Then Corporal Day, now John's second in command was running through the flower beds toward me. Day's face said everything even before he started to speak the attack had failed it had failed the moment John had been killed out there in the middle of the street and ten yards in front of day and the rest of the assault party John had died in just the same way as that young German officer this morning that had finished it the rest of them including day had turned and run but in some extraordinary way no one else had been hit day made no excuse no attempt to

excuse himself telling the story factually and not trying to put a gloss on the incident the implication was clear they had been asked to do too much so now i had been responsible for killing john as well it had been so simple i had issued the orders and then john had walked out into the middle that road to be shot down by the machine gun. I should not have done it. The counterattack should never have been attempted. The men were no longer capable of making such an effort. They could still hang on to their positions, fighting from behind cover, but after six days of continuous battle, they lacked the will to get to their feet and go for the enemy. In the woods, it had just been possible to urge them forward in one last surge of willpower, but since then they'd endured

of further 48 hours of death, starvation, thirst, and fatigue. And in the woods, it was men from my own company. Today it had been different. Today, a mixture of men. Survivors of four different companies had been left to follow a gunner officer whom they hardly knew. There was a limit to what soldiers could be asked to do, and I had gone beyond those limits.

And so John Simmons had died. It was impossible to understand why the Germans were not using their armor to support this infiltration by their infantry. If they had done so, all resistance would have collapsed long ago, and the tanks would have been on the lawns. The crushing news that the brigadier had been badly wounded came through on the telephone just before the line went dead once again. The bosh were now among the houses and gardens, which the glider pilots had been holding, and Gray had reported that he was being shot at from. two sides at the same time the quartermaster had also sent word that the enemy were behind him and that he had long ago lost all contact with the reckey on his left they are just in a wretched state and he goes to meet with the colonel in one of the buildings the colonel seemed to be trying to

break something to to us gently and then it came out it was hard to believe harder still to understand the division was to be withdrawn over the Rhine that night it was all over it had been it had only been possible to ferry about 250 men of the dorsets over the river before dawn a profitless addition to the perimeter garrison the second army had overreached itself and trying to get to us and although the troops were pouring northward they lacked the strength across the river and continued the advance into Germany Already the bosh were hammering from the flanks at their narrow lines of communication.

So the operation had failed. Everything had been in vain. It was all a waste. Listening to the outline of what had to be done that night, it was hard to concentrate on the details. The first emotion was grief. And then utter disappointment. The battalion had been destroyed to no purpose. And that's it.

They get the order that night to leave. And they come up with a plan. They actually follow rope. They put rope at night down towards the river where they're going to get extracted. And at night, they attempt to follow that rope down there. And of course, along the way, they lose more men. Men get separated.

Men don't hang on. They get lost. And they lose even more men as they're trying to make it to their extraction point. But he does end up with a small group of people at this extraction point. There's Canadian boats there to bring them across the Rhine River. Back to the book. The Canadians were already pulling the last men into the boat,

and I was standing with Harrison alone in the river. When I heard a whiner's voice harshly insisting that no one would be left behind. The young coxswain needed no further urging but import us to be careful as the boat was grossly overloaded. Then Harrison pushed me up over the side and the two of us flopped down behind the coxon as the engine went into gear and the boat moved towards midstream. So now they get across the river. They get dropped off and to answer your question earlier, once they get dropped off and they're on the other side of the, they're on the western side of the Rhine River, it's basically secure area. Even though it was only several hundred yards away, it was relatively secure. Now what they have to do is they have to march back about five miles to get to A even more secure base Here we go back to the book as we reached the track which after a few hundred yards led us to the road When I stopped the men flopped to the ground empty and lifeless

Lacking any wish to go on More parties of men appeared through the darkness Shambling in the exhaustion of relief all terror ended devoid of the willpower needed to summon up further effort there was only one way to make the two mile march bearable an old-fashioned remedy I called the sergeant whiner to fall the men in threes the disciplined bark bounced back to me as whiner pulled himself to his feet shouting to the men to fall in there was no trace of query or surprise in whiner's voice and the men shuffled to their feet that's that's your root training right there that you're exhausted after eight days

continuous combat you're just done and the sergeant says all right on your feet form a column of threes and you do it they get close to the end I'm now they can see the camp and I halted them there was only one way to end such a march it was pointless perhaps but I decided to make the final gesture bringing them to attention I ordered them to slope arms and to march by the left to attention I sent their appreciation as their shoulders went back this was the way they always returned to camp this was the way they always finished as they stepped off for the last 50 yards they were even swinging their arms so they marched back into this camp once they

get into this camp they get loaded up into a vehicle a big military transport vehicle that's gonna take them further to the rear where they can get some treatment and they're loaded into that vehicle and here we go back to the the book the canopy of the truck now sheltered us but my shivering became uncontrollable I knew I was becoming light-headed and could hear myself grieving aloud for those that we had left behind particularly for those who had been lost during the withdrawal down the river bank there was silence in the truck then I heard as if from a long way off the voice of Sergeant Weiner calm and flat saying that none of them

would have got back if it had not been for me. It was true to say that I would never have got back if it hadn't been for them, but I shall always be grateful to Weiner for having said it. The next thing I remember was Weiner and Harrison, half carrying me into what seemed to be a hospital. Someone was stripping off my clothes and dressing me in pajamas. Then I felt the prick of a needle in my arm. I was awake the sun shining into the windows of the ward an orderly brought tea and food on a tray I lay between the clean sheets looking at the torn and filthy garments on the chair by the side of the bed there was nothing wrong with me now

I saw that my hand was wrapped in a clean bandage when the nursing orderly came to remove the tray he brought me the message that a soldier was waiting in the corridor to see me As soon as the orderly left, the room I slipped out of bed and put on my clothes and went out in the corridor. Waiting there was Harrison, a broad smile on his face, telling me that Captain Gray and Mr. Elkins and turned up with eight of the missing men. Another 20 stragglers had also arrived from somewhere or another. But that was the lot. That was the battalion. Three officers and 43 soldiers. We walked out the door of the hospital side, side by side.

The week September shone, shone down on the battered buildings, away in the distance. The dull rumble of the battle still rolled down from the north. Once, all the men were recovered, and that's the end of the book. And when all the men were recovered and when you look at the actual battalion of the 156th parachute battalion, It looked like this 313 men were captured many of those were wounded there was 98 killed in action and there was a total of 68 from the battalion that made it across the Rhine safely and those 68 men if they could heal up were then sent to the other battalions inside the first para brigade and the 156th parachute battalion was actually disbanded. It ceased to exist. Jeffrey Powell went on to retire from the army, the British Army in 1964. He retired as a Major General.

He was awarded the Military Cross, which is Britain's third highest award for Valor. And this is what his citation reads at Arnhem after his commanding officer had become a casualty. Major Powell took command of the remnants of the battalion. of the remnants of the battalion up to this time he conducted himself with the greatest gallantry for the remaining six days he retained control of his unit and also of the men of other units in the area under the most difficult conditions heavy fire from mortars artillery and self-propelled guns never stopped his activity in getting round his section of the perimeter and encouraging his men to greater efforts throughout the whole period of the arnhem battle

in spite of being wounded this officer showed himself to be a gallant leader of men and a most capable fighter and one whose bravery was a source of inspiration to the men under his command and to all those around him and I think it's

pretty clear that if you read a book like this General Powell is still a source of inspiration as are the rest of these incredibly brave men and also a source of source of leadership lessons, what to do and what not to do. And it's also an incredible

reminder of that heavy burden of command. And the fact of the matter is when you lead, you own every decision and every action not only of yourself, but of your men. And with that burden, you owe it to them. To be as well prepared, to be as tactically sound, and to be as physically and mentally strong as you can possibly be. And that goes for any leadership position. When you are a leader, be as prepared as you possibly can. And then you go out and you lead and you lead with courage and you lead with resolution and you lead with boldness like Jeffrey Powell. and the officers and the men of the 156th parachute.

Pretty amazing book. You know, like I said, I got this book six days ago or something. Somebody just sent it to me. And I gave it the little tests when I kind of opened books up because people send me a lot of books. Sure. And I gave it the test. You know, I opened up, I read a couple sections.

And immediately, you know, I'll open to a book in four or five different places to see. see what it reads like and this you know within the first page the first page that I read I said oh we looks like we have a winner here this one's gonna be on the podcast because it's just impactful and the account now the in the back of the book he talks about the individuals and just read some of them off here the brigadier was general John Hackett The colonel was

Dickie DeVoe of the Grenadier guards His fellow grenadier was Sergeant Major Sergeant Major Dennis Gay His Batman The guy that he talks about Harrison Throughout the book

The guy that's there From the beginning to the end Always by his side That was actually a guy named Fred Tracy The guy named David In the book Is the character in the book The real guy was named Michael

Page who had been Powell's best man and whose son Jeffrey, born posthumously, had another son named Michael. Luke Tyler and Sergeant Weiner and Jones and John Simmons. These were all real people. So, you know, this is another guy that very similar to Major John Glover, who said he had a hard time writing about himself in the first person. You know, I did this and I did that. That's the same thing that Powell said.

You know, he had a hard time writing until he just made it about some other. He made some other character in his head and wrote from that perspective. But, man, you definitely, this book, like I said, I read, I don't know, 5% of it. It's not a huge book, though, actually. It's only a couple hundred pages long, and it's a very fast read. Did you find it to give you this weird stressful feeling, reading, though? Absolutely. Like listening to is like just more stressful

It is it is and I was debating When to tell you and when to tell everyone that that this is not a good that this isn't a good story Right this isn't a positive thing And I kind of just I don't know when I actually said that hey they're not gonna win I mean I said that the The operation market garden was it was a failure But you know what does that really look like you know what I mean like? You don't know what that looks like until you get reading this book and then you start to feel what it feels like and absolutely and and when you read the whole book man it is just coming apart it's just little misfortune little misfortune and they're just coming and they

don't stop they just don't stop it's a it's a nightmare scenario and yeah and there's tons of great lessons learned it's so it's so amazing because I never read this book before I just got it yeah but it's amazing cover move yeah decentralized command yeah prioritize and execute even that part when you're on keeping it simple right everything that that we learned that you know I should have learned this years ago yeah and when I think about you know I was you you look back at your life right and you say yourself what could I have done better what could I do different and you know everyone in the SEAL teams like basically you get one shot at each job other than just being a a shooter in a platoon that you can do three or four times if you're lucky but

then once you get into a leadership position you're like you're an assistant platoon commander you do that one time then you're a platoon commander you do that one time then you're a task unit commander you do that one time generally sometimes sometimes guys rarely guys do more than one of those same thing on the enlisted side guy gets to do an a leading petty officer does that one time chief petty officer of a platoon platoon chief does that one time senior chief in charge of a task unit does that one time you don't get to repeat the jobs and so Basically when you're finally getting good at your job, you're done and now you got to go get the next job up the chain of command

So for me it was always and now looking back and and even talking to talking to my seal buddies now like like how can we prepare them better so they know What we had to learn during the job. It's it's it's a hard thing to do because because a lot of stuff you actually have to learn from experience Yeah and and actually we talked about that at the last muster which is That was a big part that we talked about. If you're gonna get good at something, you have two choices. Experience or training. And training is a way to condense experience down and distill it. And that's what was great about when I was running training on the West Coast.

We got to really condense that experiential. I mean, guys went through, guys went through hellacious training. And we provide total chaos for them that most guys wouldn't experience that kind of chaos in their whole career. or in 10 careers But they would get it and they would get pushed super hard So that went when they got out on the battlefield They were ready for the for the chaos that was out there Because we trained him and we pushed them further and harder during training

Then we hoped they would get pushed on the battlefield Yeah, it's crazy even that cover and move even when they're retreating It's like it showed like how you got to keep that discipline with that It's kind of like you know like in an MMA fight or something and the guy starts getting hit on the end inside and rather than still covering up a little bit while he goes back he like runs away or something like that you know turn your back and he'll get cracked yes turn your back and you're done but great book i definitely recommend it for your reading list yeah there was a there was that part in there that the guy came up to i think reload ammo or something and the guy's sitting there

oh yeah yeah yeah and he's just so he gets like scolded or whatever and you know it turns out he's wounded right yeah like that's kind of that was an interesting little lesson there like you just don't know so you can't just start going off on so it's totally true and and and I don't know if you remember somebody asked us a question one time about you know how do I these people that have had everything given to them yeah and I and I you know I've had a I grew up in a tough neighborhood and it's like oh you actually don't know what that person's been through and we had that whole discussion yeah that's the same thing true on a day-to-day basis with every other human being that you're dealing with you don't know what they're going through you don't know what triumphs and

tragedies they've had in their life you don't know what just happened to them this morning so the the recommended course of action is you give someone a little bit of slack when you don't know you know yeah you ever seen that that Seinfeld when he goes to talk to the girl come on for it's actually it was it was pretty much this but just on Seinfeld so he goes to talk to the screen like I gotta talk to that girl she's hot or whatever he goes up to and he's like Hey, hey, hello, excuse me. And her back is kind of turned, you know.

He's like, excuse me, hello, hello, like, and he starts to get real mad that she's not listening to him. Finally, he walks, like, more close to her, and she kind of starts to turn around. He's like, oh, so now you pay attention. What are you deaf? And she's like, bingo, like, signs to him. Oh. She is deaf, you know?

You got to chill out, you know? Find out about people first before you start. Make sure the regimental sergeant major isn't wounded in both legs. before you start dressing him down. I know, yeah, man. That's a good thing. He put that in this book,

you know, that's pretty humble. Yeah. For him to put this in this book. You know what I mean? And that other part where they were all, what, like tired and stuff, right? Or they were defeated, essentially.

They were actually, you mean when they were basically broken men? Yeah, and they got up and they just started charging getting out. Yeah, default aggressive. Yeah, yeah. The default aggressive part. aggressive part that's like um like you know why there's big centipedes you know

then they're like they're kind of how big are they like eight feet long no no they're bigger than like centipedes that I've seen here okay give me a figure like six inches like six is like a normal big centipede six inches and they'll get bigger anyway they're I mean compared to you you know that they're they're little bucks they're little whatever and you just step on it but like when you start messing with it and it starts to get nuts it's super intimidated I'm just saying what do they have teeth like that I don't know but they can chase you out of your room you got chased out of your room by a set of peteen like even like a

like a wasp or you know like with these little things that are way smaller than you so they just get nuts and then and like you don't want to mess with it you know so Laif Laif was over my house was a while ago a couple years ago and uh there was a lizard in my house like about a yeah see about a nine inch lizard and so my son and Leif are going to try and catch this lizard and and they're being weak they're like yeah they're like oh you know they're like oh wait wait no grab it get a box on it and all so so I come in mr. tough guy you know I come in reached I go just grab that thing you wussies reach down I reach down to grab this thing this thing turns its head yeah and bites yeah so

And I screamed like the Jim Carrey like, oh. Yeah, yeah. And I flicked my hand. It was absolutely hilarious because I went from being a big tough guy to screaming. Oh! And having a lizard bit onto my finger drew blood, by the way. Yeah, yeah. This thing drew blood, yeah, on my thumb.

So, yeah, I was default aggressive, but it didn't work out. The lizard was more default aggressive than I was. Yeah. See, and that is funny. That's a funny story for a couple of reasons. in my opinion, but that is the exact same concept, though, you know, where if you would have, like how you said in the book, just kept your head, you smashed that lizard.

Yeah, well, if I wanted to catch it alive, I wasn't trying to kill it. Yeah. But still, I should have been more, like, the bite didn't even hurt, right? I just shocked me. Yeah, yeah. It just shocked me. I'm not ready for all this. Yeah, I wasn't ready for the gnashing of the teeth.

Getting nuts, man. Yeah, those lizards, we have a lot of those, especially when it gets hot. Those, I mean, I'm assuming it's the same kind. There are these, But here's the thing. Growing up on Kauai, there's these things. We call them, camellians, but they're like anole, Anole, A-N-O-L-E. That's what you spent, spell it.

They turn green or brown or whatever. And they get pretty big, and they're super aggressive. Like, when you grab them, oh, that's the red thing comes out of their neck, and they start biting you. And you get them to, when you hold them after a while, they start to calm down. And I think they just start to get sick and stuff. I don't know. I don't know. But they calm down.

So you can do this thing where basically, okay, if you have a lizard's head, you go like this. And he'll go like that. He'll try to bite you. So what you do is when he calms down, right when you grab him, he's trying to kill you. But when he calms down after, I don't know, three, four minutes, you do that. And he'll keep kind of like. He'll do less and less and less and less. He'll always do that, though, but it'll just be a lot less aggressive.

And then if you put your finger in his mouth, he'll bite you and he won't let go. So you got to kind of drag your finger out and yet it can cause blood or whatever. But what we do is, and you can see the picture of this, we do that and we put it on, put the lizard on our ears. So the lizard would be an earring. An earring, yeah, biting ears, you'd have two lizards hanging down. But anyway, the point there being, if you can keep your, yeah, in all, yeah, when you grow up with that stuff, like those lizards are not scary. Even if they're aggressive and some of them, they get pretty, like, big and bulky. And they're like, dang, this thing has some power to it, this little lizard, you know.

but even here when I grab them they're like oh no I wouldn't have screamed like you yeah I screamed experiencing it's yeah the lizard got me dude

it was awful it was awful well being prepared I guess is what we're talking about being aggressive why don't you get default aggressive with letting anybody know

if they want to support this podcast maybe how they could do it also support jocco's traumatizing experience with lizards with lizards biting his fingers

and him screaming I mean, who was it, Leif and who? It was Leif in my son. Yeah, did they lose respect for you that time? A little bit. Well, it's actually funny because Leif always talks about, you know, me being calm. And that's why he laughed so hard. We were driving one time and we almost got in a car wreck.

He was driving, actually. And I'll have him tell the story, but we hit mud and we hit, we were out in the desert. We were going 65 miles an hour on a back road, back by all these farms. and it was 2 o'clock in the morning, 3 o'clock in the morning, something like that. And normally these roads are completely dry. They're in the desert. And we're hauling.

And Leif's driving, I think he's driving his truck. Yeah, he was driving his truck. We're hauling. And all of a sudden out of nowhere, we see a big 18-wheeler on the side of the road, on the opposite side of the road, but it's a narrow road. Yeah, yeah. And as we're hauling, all of a sudden, we hit water.

Like water probably a couple inches deep of water with mud because it's a what happened somewhere Irrigation from all this farmland had broken and there was this flood and so we hit this thing and we're immediately hydroplane And and Leif is from Texas Leif is from Texas so he's not used to driving in the snow I grew up driving the snow in New England you know you just you just deal with it Everyone's like a rally driver up there. Yeah, yeah that's all serious and so and so Leif he's not really used to this and and and And he starts to oversteer the car, which is really, really bad. Yeah. And, you know, I'm sitting there, and we're going 65 miles an hour.

He's funny when he tells the story, too, because he's like, we thought we were going to die. He thought he was like, we were definitely going to die. And I'm sitting there in the passenger seat and I say, don't oversteer. Don't oversteer. No brakes. No brakes. All right, you're good. Because that's the other thing mistake you can make.

If you jam on the brakes, you're going to lock it up and you're going to slide, you're going to lose control. So I just don't oversteer, don't oversteer. No brakes. No brakes. All right, you're good. So that was not my reaction when I got bit on the phone by the lizard. It was hilarious. Dang, bro.

It's all good. But, hey, man, you know, if you want to support this podcast, how will this talk about that? Possible. Do it. So, one good way and support. This is what it is. Origin, right? Origin.

The brand. Origin main. com. That's a website. They got a lot of cool stuff. One of the cool items, actually there's a bunch are geese for Jiu-Jitsu. I remember back when, I kind of won't be first started this thing. That would be the main question about Jiu-Jitsu, is what kind of ghee?

And I'd be like, oh, yeah, there's these, and I give them the three. The top, actually, there was four of them. And it was shortly after where you recommended these origin ones. And then when I went there, I was like, oh, shoot, this is kind of expensive. I don't know, you know, but then I just looked at the one that was like, it was like the first one I saw. But there are many varying prices of geese, and they're all good, by the way. I know this because I have some. Nonetheless, if you're still wondering what kind of ghee to get origin ghee, 100%.

You have options, you know, as far as pricing and stuff like that, if you want the deluxe one versus the more basic one. But they're all dope. And here's the thing about them. They're all made in America. And not in the sense where they're just kind of assembled in America, but sort, you know, the materials are sourced somewhere else. The materials are sourced. Would you call them sourced?

I guess the raw materials. It comes from Tennessee. Yeah, South Carolina. South Carolina. Somewhere. Here. America. I know that.

America. Boom. Brought over to Maine. assembled loom or what it not loom loom yeah that's not a verb right yeah woven on a loom

boom into this outstanding material moisture what do you call it wicking wicking right that's when it it kind of like helps yeah with moisture I didn't know all this by the way

I'm like being educated on it and there's a lot to know by the way and anti-microbial that's a big deal anyway origin mien dot com that's where you get school stuff There's other stuff too, like rash guards and even like clothes, regular clothes, athletic wear. It's dope.

Anyway, all made in America. Boom. Also for some legitimate fitness gear on it.com slash jockel. I just got the, I know I'm into kettlebells. I know I said that before. I'm saying it again. What is yours? What is your heaviest kettlebell?

The one you have? 40 kilograms. Right. So it's 88 pounds. Okay. Mine's 90. Well, I have two. Do you only have one? I'll have one have one currently. All right well shoot I guess you know it's clear what I got to do

Maybe I'll get another one step it up but um shoot who is I talking to you about it. Oh yeah Morgan you know Morgan Yeah, right pro we're talking about kettlebells Morgan's Morgan's feeling strong. I told him that yesterday Yeah not not just because that's it's kind of a insult in jiu jitsu yes right to say like hey you feel really strong it's an insult it's an insult yeah But I made it perfectly clear yesterday. I was like, hey, you feel jiu-jitsu strong. I said, it's not, I'm not trying to say you feel strong, like, hey, you're a meat, you're a meathead. Right.

But you feel strong in a positive way because, and I said, here's the deal. If it was just you being strong, then five years ago, when I started training you, I'd be like, oh, you feel strong. I didn't say it then because you didn't feel strong. Yeah. You feel strong now that your jitsu is getting better and you're getting more skills.

Yeah, I feel like we got to come with a different expression or maybe just a modified expression because some people yeah like people tell me I'm strong or whatever and after a while I was like wait I felt the same thing that you've yeah one time I told you like you're strong I thought it was kind of maybe subconsciously I thought it was kind of established that okay look you're really good at jujitsu you know I thought that was kind of a given so if I were to tell you you're strong it'd be kind of like what did I like rebut you was I like oh yeah I was like you're like no my technology Your's like no my technique. I was like yeah no no I know that I know your technique is outstanding

I got defensive yeah a little bit not in an angry wear nothing like that but yeah that's pretty funny actually So I'm surprised I wasn't a little bit more sarcastic about it See okay and which you know I'm surprised I didn't say yeah I'm glad I'm so strong Yeah that I can just you know what I said you like people say it and I know people don't mean it I know they don't mean that You know what what how we take it kind of like you're strong it's your your your physical strength not your jujitsu technique that's what you know what I'm what we take it as, you know, and they're just throwing it in, like, how I, essentially how I did with you is kind of like, look, you're better than Jiu-Jitsu than me. You beat me up all the time. But in addition to that. On top of that, you're pretty strong, too. That's probably what people are saying most of the time. But so when people will be like, dang, you're strong, you're great. When they say you're strong, I say, yeah, I lift a lot of weights. Yeah. So it kind of gives them the impression kind of like, yeah, my weightlifting basically beats your jiu-jitsu kind of thing. And that's more of an insult, you know, kind of thing. But. It's it's a joke really yeah

nonetheless so yes Morgan he's strong Jiu Jiu Jitsu strong Jiu Jitsu is strong so his technique is strong so that means his technique is getting better and it and it reveals right it can deliver the strength in the proper way yeah yes good job Morgan but we were talking about kettlebells yeah and he was like bro kettlebells are hard so I started to feel kind of good because I got this 90 pound one and I was like I lifted it up and you know okay you know this the one hand boom clean What a clean press is there if you use your legs if you use your legs to snap it up there a little bit yes That's the clean and jerk okay even one hand if you just do if you don't use any legs and you just power it up smoothly That's a press okay so mine was clean and jerk I try to use the whole kind of body whatever So my Metcons they do when I got the werewolf ones those are like 62 pounds

I do two at a time boom boom okay easy and you do reps you know it's a whole thing so I got the The gorilla one, 72 pounds, and I could do that one, just as you get strong, you know. So I get the 90 pound one. I'm like, I only got one, too. So I don't know. Do you think two at one time is easier because of the balance, right? No, it's not easier. I mean, you're using more energy for sure, but as far as like doing the balance.

No, not easier. Yeah. Okay. Well, so one is easier. One is for sure. Okay. Okay. Well, okay.

Gotcha. So I got one big foot. That's 90 pounds. And I lifted that up. I was like, man, I'm not ready. I'm not ready for that. And so it was like maybe two, three days later, I was like, well, I got to try. That's the, you know, I got the 72 pound one.

I can do that, you know, a bunch of times actually. But so I just warmed up a bunch and just, first time I did it, like, I straight up failed. I couldn't do it. And I was like, all right, all right. And I know how it feels now and all this stuff. And then I can do it. Boom, both sides. Boom.

Yeah. That's good. Solid. I'm glad we all know that now. Yep. Hey, hey, you know, it's relevant. Just saying, actually, which is actually what makes kettlebells kind of fun to do is because it does require legitimate technique. Yeah.

Like you can't, like it's hard. It's like a dumbbell or a barbell or a machine. Well, if you're doing barbell snatches, it takes a hell of a lot of techniques. And that's really the spectrum, you know, so if you go like kettlebell and dumb, because dumbbells are straight up balanced. I mean, they're not, they're not like a, but they have a handle, both sides of the handle. equal amount of weight, you know, boom, you just have to balance your body. And then after you get that balance down, it's pretty easy. Barbell even less, because you don't have two sides got to be balanced.

It's just one long thing. And then two sides of that is balanced. Then you go machine, you don't even need balance. You just need the strength to push. So it's that spectrum. So the kettlebell is way on this side of the spectrum where it kind of, there's the game within the game, you know? That's what makes it more fun, I think. You see progress in both areas, technique and strength.

Anyway, we'll leave it at that. If you want the cool kettlebells on it.com slash jocco or jump ropes, battle maces. Do you call them battle maces or just maces? That's called maces. Yeah. Those are kind of clubs. Yeah, you can get some cool workouts with that. And they do like your forearms get, I didn't look into like what exactly, you know, they're going to improve.

But I know core strength and all this stuff, but there's all these little things they improve too. Outstanding stuff. Also, good way to support. If you're going to get this book, Men at, how do you pronounce the place? Arnhem. Arnhem. Yep.

Arnhem. Okay, men at Arnhem. Jeffrey Powell. That's how I pronounced it anyways. I apologize to anyone that's from Holland. Yeah. And pronounces it a different way. I looked at it on YouTube and how they said it.

And it was like, they say, oh, how to pronounce Arnham. And there's 14 different ways to say it. Yeah. So I just rolled the dice and picked one. That sounded. easiest for me to say. So sorry if I'm saying it wrong. Yeah, man. No, all good.

But if you want to get that book or any other book that Jock reviews on the website, just go to joccopodcast.com. On the top menu there, click on books from episodes. All the books are listed there

by episode, along with a few other things, but mainly just the books by episode, you click through there. takes you to Amazon get those books there that's a good way to support that's the Amazon click through or if you do any other shopping if you're getting a tripod or a video camera or duct tape or whatever click through there boom that's a good way to support great way to support also a little addition there you know how we had the

website jocco podcast 2.com that's a there's a long story I think I went into it it was like when I was like testing like what website provider whatever I was like Let me get this one because whatever if I'm attached. It's a long story. And then, so we ended up getting jococopodcast.com, and they're both kind of there. But jocopodcast too is kind of the primary one. It's not the primary one anymore. Jocco podcast.

It's joccopodcast.com. Okay. So that's the website. And that was actually a trooper that straight up got us jocco podcast.com. Looking out for us. And then that's a big deal. We saw him in New York. Good dude.

Yeah. That's a huge deal. Because like do you have your own name? Yeah. Okay. So people will be like, oh, this guy's blowing up. They'll go and they'll buy the domain name either hold on to it or immediately go to you and be like, hey, you want to buy this for me? Might be. Yeah, they hold it hostage. In fact, I think there might be like a legal like defense against it. Like if someone gets your name or your kid's name and you're kind of a public figure. I think I'm not sure. But yeah, that's what people do, man. Or they'll buy a bunch of domain names that sounds. cool and they'll be like yeah you can buy this from me kind of thing it's it's super whack when they do it with like euro you know when they know like that's your company you have you have for a long time they I don't know what they paid for eventually paid for UFC dot com but for a long time they were like UFC dot TV and all these yeah they had to

step up I bet you they I bet somebody made a lot of money off that one yeah you know see especially the three letters yeah it's like if you get the less letters and more money Crazy town. Nonetheless, but yeah, joccopodcast.com. That's the main website now. If you were going to joccopodcast2.com, it's not that anymore. Does it send you, though, over? It does did, but while I'm switching, I'm doing this thing.

It will eventually. It will eventually, yes. But if you run into that, that's why. Got it. People have been hitting me up. And rightly so, thanks for that. So, yeah, nonetheless, back to the point. If you want to support, by getting these books, go through the website.

And click through there. It's a good way to support small action. Huge reaction. Small, huge. That's how it works. Also, subscribe to the podcast. iTunes, if you haven't already. Stitcher, if you don't use iOS, iPhone, Google Play.

Anywhere they provide podcasts, boom, we're on there. So subscribe, that's a good way. Also, YouTube. Yes, I put some excerpts on there. More excerpts. I'm going to continue to do so. Shareable excerpts. Try to keep a mind.

under four minutes that's cool right four yeah might be a little long but every once in a while you get it like a good like 10 minute one though that's the thing yeah but they're more sure better than two that's a long time though think about the videos that you you want to get compression three minutes four minutes tops yeah and it depends on the do you should edit them maybe like make them shorter yeah yeah i mean if it's appropriate because sometimes you don't want to sometimes it's just you saying like a whole thing and it's like okay that's solid and sometimes it's you and then my rebuttal to kind of kind of bolster the point your point because you'll clarify it because I you know and it's all it's it makes

sense so sometimes if you edit certain things out maybe the message isn't there as much as maybe it should be not all the time not all the time but most of the time unless I'll look into it how about that ideally if a video and this goes along with like people's typical attention span should be what like about a minute and a half I don't know but my attention span's getting tested right now by support just saying we this is important stuff we need to go over this so we can come to the best conclusion on how to conduct ourselves in regards to YouTube excerpts and other things nonetheless subscribe to the YouTube channel. It's good. We're going to

provide value. How about that? No. Also, if you're into the video version, because some people are, some people are into more the video version of the podcast. Yeah. You know, boom, subscribe. If you haven't already. YouTube.

Also, Jocko has a store. It's called Jocko store.com. If you didn't already know, um, on there, we got some cool stuff. Shirts, mainly some rash guards. I just made an order for hoodies thicker heavier fall is coming are we in fall right now the fall was the first day of fall was like the other day we're in fall yeah so we got some not that we're doing a whole seasonal thing i'm just saying it's fall now getting cool getting cooler check got some hoodies on there got

some shirts on there got some rash guards on there i think i'm going to do a warrior kid rash guard i have one yeah i know i saw but it's not in production Yeah, and it's not, I'm going to change it a little bit, some coloring stuff and whatever, but it is pretty cool. Good, good little pre-response. Also, hats on there and some other cool stuff. I'm not saying get something. I'm saying, go on there. Check it out.

If you want to support and you want to get something, you think something is cool for yourself or for your, you know, friend, wife, girlfriend, neighbor, whoever, didn't get something. Good way to support. Actually, great way to support. Also, psychological warfare. Okay. What psychological warfare is? If you don't know, it's an album with Jocko tracks. So basically, if you're on your campaign against weakness and you have a moment of weakness, this is like a little spot. So basically you put on these audio tracks to let you know, hey, pragmatically, don't skip this workout today. Hey, don't slip on this diet today.

Hey, your procrastination isn't working, and here's why. But it's jocco telling you. So it's kind of like more effective, way more effective. 100% success rate in my experience, 100%. That's legit. Hey, also, Jocka white tea, if you want it, you can get that on Amazon. It tastes good, and it makes you feel good. Also, on origin, mane.com, you can get Jocco super krill.

Crill oil that will make you feel good and on top of that you can get jaco joint warfare Which is awesome what's in that by the way it's Glucosamine con droitin those the main the main but then we put some additional things in there Yeah, and it's it's it's it's awesome you've got books or I've got some books if you want to read them one is called way the warrior kid one is called Extreme Ownership. The Warrior Kid book is for kids. Extreme ownership is for people in leadership positions or people that want to be in leadership positions.

There's also a new book coming out called Discipline Equals Freedom Field Manual. It actually comes out October 17th. And at one point, many months ago, October 17th seemed like it was a long ways away, but it's not anymore. It's here. So you can order that one.

It is unlike any book that you have ever seen or read. Also, what's interesting about this, book is people keep asking me if it's going to be on audible it is not going to be on audible instead of being on audible it is going to be on iTunes it's going to be on Amazon MP3 it's going to be on Google play it's going to be where you can find mp3 tracks there's a reason for this if you do it through audible you get this one big long book and it's in what the book is the way the book is written it's written to be chunked up and you're going to want to take

parts of it and play it at certain times more like you would do with the psychological warfare album so people are asking for more psychological warfare that's what we're doing discipline equals freedom field manual it's going to be available as an album that you can buy and then you can do what you want with the tracks you can make them your alarm ring tome you can listen to him out of order in any order you can put them in a mix you can do a lot more stuff with them that's why we're doing it as an album with tracks instead of as an audible book so you know what we might you know people might have a little challenge finding it or realizing you know when they go on to amazon or they go on to barns and noble they won't see that it's available

they'll be looking for the audible and you won't be able to find it i'm sorry yeah well just in audible i think that's where they won't necessarily you won't be able to find it in the audible platform right but it'll be on amazon just it'll be on amazon but you i don't think it'll be linked in right to the same thing where you go oh here it is i think it's gonna be hidden it's gonna be hard to find Kind of like it's hard to find on iTunes. It's hard to find psychological warfare. But the question is, do you want to do, did I want to do something right or just do something easy?

Yeah, that's true because the field manual, like any field manual, like when you want to go refer to it, you don't want to be searching around, especially in an audio book. You're going to be like, okay, what is that one part, you know, that deals with this? And boom, you can just go to that part. Yeah, you just look for the track name and you're there.

So like I said, we could have done the easy thing and whatever, you know, had everyone just being able to click on it really. easy I apologize but if you want the right way then that's what I had to do so that's that book and then echelon front that's the leadership consulting company that I have with layfabbin with J.P. to know Dave Burke if you want to have us come and work with your business contact info at echelonfront.com and if you have any questions or if you have any answers or if you just want to continue this conversation,

you can find us on the interwebs on Twitter, on Instagram, and on the Facebook. Echo is at Echo Charles, and I am at Jocka Willink. And finally, thanks to everyone out there for making this podcast possible to those of you in the military, especially those right now on the forward line of our own,

Facing evil every day Thank you for providing this freedom that we enjoy and to the first responders in law enforcement and fire and EMS Thank you for taking care of us while we are here at home and the rest of you That are out there that are working and building and producing and creating and Leading stepping up keep taking on challenges and keep striving to do more and to be more keep picking up the pace and keep pushing harder and no matter what the odds or what the probabilities getting after it so until next time this is echo and jocco out