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Medal of Funk · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
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  Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
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  Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. During times of war, those who refused to
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  Speaker 1: fight often turn to activism to voice their opposition. Although
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  Speaker 1: every war has seen demonstrations against armed conflict, Vietnam comes
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  Speaker 1: to mind for many as one of the most divisive
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  Speaker 1: wars in modern history, and much of the opposition came
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  Speaker 1: as a result of the draft. The Draft Lottery was
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  Speaker 1: a system used in nineteen sixty nine that conscripted young
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  Speaker 1: American men into fighting overseas. Tests were held across the country.
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  Speaker 1: Draft cards were torn up and burned, and many of
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  Speaker 1: the fighting age fled to places like Canada to avoid
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  Speaker 1: having to enlist. But that wasn't the first time people
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  Speaker 1: were forced to fight a war against their will. That
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  Speaker 1: happened in World War Two as well, and those facing
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  Speaker 1: tough choices decided to fight back in surprising and explosive ways.
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  Speaker 1: It all started with a plane, a B seventeen F
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  Speaker 1: bomber named the tond Leo. The tond Leo's ten man crew,
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  Speaker 1: including pilot Bond Fox and navigator Elmer Benny Benderner, were
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  Speaker 1: a ragtag group of fighters in charge of an aircraft
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  Speaker 1: often referred to as a flying coffin. It was a
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  Speaker 1: massive plane manufactured by Boeing. However, its design was inherently flawed.
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  Speaker 1: The B seventeen F was tail heavy, made even more
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  Speaker 1: so once the bombs, ammunition, and the crew were all
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  Speaker 1: loaded on board. With its center of gravity shifted towards
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  Speaker 1: the back of the plane, it became slow and difficult
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  Speaker 1: to maneuver. Benny and the rest of the crew understood
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  Speaker 1: what they were getting into. The Odds of surviving in
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  Speaker 1: a bomb murdering World War two were roughly thirty, but
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  Speaker 1: that didn't stop them from carrying out their missions as
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  Speaker 1: ordered and facing down German fighters in the process. But
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  Speaker 1: tid Leo didn't fly all twenty five missions it was
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  Speaker 1: meant to. It was shot down before it could be
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  Speaker 1: retired from service, though all of its crew did survive.
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  Speaker 1: But the story of this particular Beast seventeen isn't about
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  Speaker 1: how capable it was but about how lucky it was. Now,
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  Speaker 1: you might say that a plane that went down during
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  Speaker 1: battle couldn't have been that lucky, after all, it was big, heavy,
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  Speaker 1: and not very effective in a dog fight. But ask
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  Speaker 1: Benny the navigator, and he'll tell you a much different story.
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  Speaker 1: It was during one particular raid when Tan de Leo's
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  Speaker 1: crew realized just how lucky they were. They had been
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  Speaker 1: airborne for some time when they started taking fire from
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  Speaker 1: Nazi anti aircraft guns, which were firing twenty millimeter shells
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  Speaker 1: at them. One after another. The shells hit the plane miraculously,
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  Speaker 1: though they didn't explode on impact. When Time de Leo landed,
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  Speaker 1: the crew examined the fuselage and were shocked at the
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  Speaker 1: site the eleven unexploded twenty millimeter shells had been lodged
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  Speaker 1: into the wing gas tank. The shells were carefully extracted
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  Speaker 1: and sent to the armors to be diffused. But Benny
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  Speaker 1: wanted to know more. Why hadn't the shells exploded when
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  Speaker 1: they hit the plane. Well, they had been manufactured by
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  Speaker 1: forced laborers. Hitler and the Nazis didn't just kill and
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  Speaker 1: imprison people. They often put them to work growing food,
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  Speaker 1: building engines, and making munitions. These workers were literally held
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  Speaker 1: at gunpoint, forced to help their enemies or die. There
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  Speaker 1: was little they could do to rebel, but several laborers
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  Speaker 1: building anti aircraft shells had figured out a unique way
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  Speaker 1: to fight back. When military personnel opened up the shells
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  Speaker 1: that had been removed from the gas tank, they didn't
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  Speaker 1: find any explosive materials. Almost every shell was empty save
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  Speaker 1: for one. Within its hollow metal frame was a note
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  Speaker 1: left by the person who had assembled it. The worker
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  Speaker 1: had been checked and had written a message for whomever
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  Speaker 1: would find it. Translated, it said, this is all we
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  Speaker 1: can do for you now. Eventually, though, tando Leo's luck
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  Speaker 1: would run out and it's thirty four thousand pound hall
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  Speaker 1: would be claimed by the English Channel once and for all.
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  Speaker 1: But thanks to the rebellious spirit of several forced laborers,
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  Speaker 1: Benny Fox and the rest of the crew live to
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  Speaker 1: fly another day. World War two brought out some of
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  Speaker 1: the best and worst in humanity. Individual acts of bravery
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  Speaker 1: clashed with the overwhelming death and dread of mass warfare,
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  Speaker 1: but in the end, the individual stories of heroism are
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  Speaker 1: rather remarkable. For example, it takes a special kind of
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  Speaker 1: bravery to charge up Normandy beach face first an enemy gunfire.
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  Speaker 1: It takes a similar kind of bravery to jump out
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  Speaker 1: of a plane with a parachute knowing the enemy forces
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  Speaker 1: will be firing at you. And that kind of bravery
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  Speaker 1: is also found in someone who risks their own life
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  Speaker 1: to save hundreds of others. This is the kind of
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  Speaker 1: bravery that was found in the heart of First Sergeant
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  Speaker 1: Leonard A. Funk, Jr. A recipient of numerous awards and honors.
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  Speaker 1: Funk did some incredible things during World War Two, which
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  Speaker 1: distinguished him as one of the bravest Americans in enemy territory.
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  Speaker 1: But there's one particular episode that really shows us what
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  Speaker 1: kind of human Funk was. We already know that he
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  Speaker 1: was brave, selfless, and more, but this this was something else,
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  Speaker 1: like a series of scenes cut out of an action
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  Speaker 1: film that the audience immediately questions for being unrealistic. Surely
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  Speaker 1: that kind of thing couldn't happen, but it did because
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  Speaker 1: of Sergeant Funk. It happened on January nine. Funk and
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  Speaker 1: his small company of men were stationed just outside of Holtzheim, Germany,
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  Speaker 1: where they had spent the winter. Their goal was to
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  Speaker 1: take the town, but their forces were running thin. Rather
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  Speaker 1: than hunker down and wait for what may never come,
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  Speaker 1: Funk decided to continue his mission. Without enough infant treatment
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  Speaker 1: to keep advancing forward, Funk recruited a platoon of clerks
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  Speaker 1: and speed trained them into a fighting force that he
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  Speaker 1: took fifteen miles through artillery fire and driving snowstorms towards
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  Speaker 1: their objective. There they cleared out fifteen houses without losing
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  Speaker 1: a single unit, and captured eighty German soldiers in the process.
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  Speaker 1: They had taken the town, but the battle wasn't over
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  Speaker 1: for Funk. Those eighty prisoners managed to dupe their captors
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  Speaker 1: and connect with a German patrol. They waited for their
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  Speaker 1: chance to strike, and it came quickly. Funk, after doing
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  Speaker 1: the rounds to insure the safety of a town, came
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  Speaker 1: to check on the prisoners, but rather than find reassurance,
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  Speaker 1: he found a German pistol poking into his stomach. With
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  Speaker 1: little more than a handful of soldiers nearby and the
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  Speaker 1: rest of his company sweeping up the town, Funk was
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  Speaker 1: up against the odds in a big way. The Nazis
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  Speaker 1: had him dead to rights and he had nowhere left
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  Speaker 1: to turn. So when the Germans ordered him and his
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  Speaker 1: men to drop their weapons. Funk pretended to comply. He
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  Speaker 1: unslung his submachine gun from his shoulder, all while the
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  Speaker 1: cogs in his head were turning. But that's as far
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  Speaker 1: as Funk's compliance would go. With his machine guns still
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  Speaker 1: in hand, and in true Allied fashion, he laughed in
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  Speaker 1: the Nazi faces before unloading his gun into the German
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  Speaker 1: officer and his company. While he fired, Funk shouted through
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  Speaker 1: the commotion for his men to take the Germans weapons.
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  Speaker 1: Within minutes, twenty one German soldiers lay dead, many more
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  Speaker 1: were injured, and the rest had been recaptured. And you
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  Speaker 1: can bet Funk was smiling as he realized what he
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  Speaker 1: and his men had just done. They had completely overturned
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  Speaker 1: the odds, recapturing a company larger than their own, and
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  Speaker 1: halted any hopes the Germans had of upsetting American plans
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  Speaker 1: in the area, and all it took was a little
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  Speaker 1: trickery and a whole lot of bravery. Funk returned to
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  Speaker 1: America after the war to receive his awards, and he
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  Speaker 1: has since been immortalized with his own stretch of highway
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  Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania. And you can bet that all the men
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  Speaker 1: that served with him will never forget just how brave
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  Speaker 1: their sergeant was that day and his funky dose of courage.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
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  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
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  Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.