Latest / Ridiculous History / Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart was Darn Near Unkillable

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Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart was Darn Near Unkillable · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
0:27
Speaker 1: the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
0:31
Speaker 1: for tuning in. Let's hear for the man, the myth legend,
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Speaker 1: our super producer, the unkillable mister Max Williams.
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Speaker 2: Ali, Guys, I just got to ask that the top
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Speaker 2: of the show. Why art?
0:43
Speaker 3: That's the question that we've been asking for generations. What
0:46
Speaker 3: even is art? What's the point whether art? Whether art?
0:50
Speaker 3: Whence art?
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Speaker 2: It's one of the big reasons for living. Honestly, if
0:55
Speaker 2: you ask me.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and if you're saying, who is that guy we're
0:59
Speaker 1: at That guy is Noel Brown? I am Ben Bowling.
1:05
Speaker 1: We are. We are as you as you folks know,
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Speaker 1: ridiculous historians like you. We love very strange stories and
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Speaker 1: we can't believe we didn't get to this guy before Noel.
1:20
Speaker 1: People often say that it doesn't matter how many times
1:23
Speaker 1: you get knocked down, just how many times you get up,
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Speaker 1: Like that song, tell me.
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Speaker 2: You never, you ain't never gonna beat me down.
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Speaker 3: You take a whiskey, drink and drink of art, could
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Speaker 3: drink and drink the side of drink and drink the
1:34
Speaker 3: Lago drink you know the one you sing the songs
1:38
Speaker 3: that remind us of the good times and then you're
1:40
Speaker 3: pissing the night away.
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Speaker 1: Right, funny story. Funny story about that band. Uh they
1:47
Speaker 1: started as a collective of anarchist absolutely true.
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Speaker 3: The funny thing is there's a great there's a really
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Speaker 3: crazy sort of plunder phonic noise the art band called
1:57
Speaker 3: Negative Land, and I think I've mentioned before on the show.
2:00
Speaker 2: I'm a big fan of that.
2:01
Speaker 3: They made a whole record where they sampled you two
2:04
Speaker 3: and they got sued and they're like a big proponent
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Speaker 3: for copyright infringement as art. Speaking of art, but they
2:11
Speaker 3: made a collaborative record with Chumbawamba that samples Teletubbies throughout
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Speaker 3: that time. It's called The ABC's of Anarchism and it's
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Speaker 3: it's a banger if you're into weird sample based noise music.
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Speaker 1: I remember when you told me about that night. Like
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Speaker 1: full disclosure, folks, Often in our explorations on this show,
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Speaker 1: Max Nolan, I will end up immediately going to our
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Speaker 1: group chat after we've recorded and sending each other references
2:40
Speaker 1: on bits and bops, Bits and bops, you know, shout
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Speaker 1: out Mitchell Webb, look again the best Ku Klux Klan sketch.
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Speaker 3: Ever, objectively speaking, I'm trying to think of of one
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Speaker 3: that would even be in the running up against it,
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Speaker 3: but I'll have to get back to you.
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Speaker 1: It's funny because they're they're British, and in the world
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Speaker 1: of comedy, those guys are badasses and we're.
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Speaker 3: The Black Clansman episode of Dave Chappelle is pretty damn good.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry, sorry, No, that's perfect because they should hang out.
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Speaker 1: But the the reason we're bringing up Mitchell Webb is
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Speaker 1: because they are British. And while there are many examples
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Speaker 1: of phenomenal individuals who took a licking and kept on ticking. Uh,
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Speaker 1: today we are over the moon, tox.
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Speaker 2: Is it TIMEX takes a licking and keeps on Sorry.
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Speaker 1: We're we're we're over the moon. To introduce you to
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Speaker 1: a British guy you might not have heard of in
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Speaker 1: the United States. Yeah, it's surprising that I hadn't heard
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Speaker 1: of him either, norl This is Sir Adrian Carton de
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Speaker 1: Wyart again, why art and.
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Speaker 3: Shout out right up front to our buddy and fellow
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Speaker 3: ben over a badass of the week is very much
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Speaker 3: in his wheelhouse. I don't think he's covered this fellow,
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Speaker 3: but certainly red meat for a bad weeks.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and if you like this episode, check out our
4:04
Speaker 1: earlier conversations with Ben. He's a recurring guest in the
4:07
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History Universe, and also check out his show Badass
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Speaker 1: of the Week. We were big, big fans before you
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Speaker 1: even got into podcasting, and this is the kind of
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Speaker 1: stuff that we would absolutely kick it with Ben on
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Speaker 1: so strap in, folks, this is bonkers. So our buddy.
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Speaker 1: Adrian is born into an aristocratic family out in Brussels
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Speaker 1: on May fifth, eighteen eighty h He is the eldest
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Speaker 1: son of We're gonna have a lot of fun with
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Speaker 1: names here, No Leon Constant, Gelaine Caughton des Wyart, who
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Speaker 1: is a lawyer and a magistrate, and Ernestine Venzig or
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Speaker 1: what do you think, Benz.
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Speaker 2: That would go with it? I would put a little
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Speaker 2: a of the yes, sir.
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Speaker 3: His life started pretty dramatically with some high stakes built
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Speaker 3: right in. While these are officially his parents, there was
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Speaker 3: a bit of wide rife speculation that he was actually
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Speaker 3: the illegitimates bastard son of that's sorry to add instult
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Speaker 3: to injury there of King Leopold of the second, the
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Speaker 3: ruler of Belgium and by most accounts, an absolute pill
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Speaker 3: of utter high magnitude.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Check out our good pal Robert Evans episodes on King
5:40
Speaker 1: Leopold at his show Behind the Bastards. This guy, also,
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Speaker 1: Adrian has an international childhood. We're just gonna say it, honestly.
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Speaker 1: He was sort of a silver spoon kid. He was
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Speaker 1: way better off than most other people on the planet.
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Speaker 1: Born on May fifth, eighteen eighty life crossing back and
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Speaker 1: forth from Belgium to England. He's six years old and
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Speaker 1: for a long time, this is funny. For a long time,
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Speaker 1: based on his autobiography, people assumed his mom died when
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Speaker 1: he was six. That's not true. They divorced. His parents
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Speaker 1: divorced when he was six, and his father moved the
6:22
Speaker 1: klan out to Cairo over in Egypt, and he worked
6:26
Speaker 1: for this is so Cia precursor. He works for something
6:31
Speaker 1: called the Cairo Electric Railways and Heliopolis Oasis Company. He
6:37
Speaker 1: has deep government connections and energy connections.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it would seem like that's kind of that ticks
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Speaker 3: all the boxes for that.
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Speaker 2: And it was there that he became fluent in Arabic.
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Speaker 3: You know, as you may imagine, because of his moneyed background,
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Speaker 3: he was already set for life. He was educated at
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Speaker 3: the highest levels, the top schools, and he could have
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Speaker 3: done pretty much whatever he wanted to.
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Speaker 2: He was a smart fellow.
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Speaker 3: But around eighteen ninety nine he left the Balliol College
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Speaker 3: in Oxford to join the British Army.
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Speaker 2: He wanted to serve his country.
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Speaker 3: He was twenty years old at the time roughly, but
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Speaker 3: he claimed for the purposes of enlisting to be twenty
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Speaker 3: five years old, and he signed on just as Trooper Carton. Yeah,
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Speaker 3: it sounds like a good name for like a like
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Speaker 3: a goofy slapstick sitcom from the sixties or something, you know,
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Speaker 3: like Sergeant Billcoe.
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Speaker 1: You know, right right, it's right up there with My
7:38
Speaker 1: name is John last.
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Speaker 3: Name indeed, Yeah, yeah, And this is of course, I
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Speaker 3: think he wanted to be free of his aristocratic background.
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Speaker 3: I think he wanted to kind of have a fresh
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Speaker 3: start and not be seen as some kind of silver
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Speaker 3: spoon brat.
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Speaker 1: Also, there was a big thing at the time when
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Speaker 1: you were young man signing up for war you had
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Speaker 1: to have your father's consent, and he did not. He
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Speaker 1: didn't tell his dad his dad thought he was at
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Speaker 1: school at Oxford the full time. Yes, so that's probably
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Speaker 1: why he told some whoppers, some grilled flame whoppers about
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Speaker 1: his id in the first place. And the British had
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Speaker 1: no idea they had gained a kind of super soldier
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Speaker 1: Noel off Mic. We were talking about whether this guy
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Speaker 1: is considered a you know, a British version of Captain America,
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Speaker 1: or whether he's more like the Punisher.
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Speaker 2: But or the terminator of sorts.
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Speaker 1: There we go, we kid the not folks. This young man,
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Speaker 1: through either luck or skill, appeared to be positively unkillable.
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Speaker 3: It would seem a combination of both. So let's get
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Speaker 3: into some conflicts. Some war talk here, Carton weird dewyart
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Speaker 3: excuse me, served in the Boer War, World War One,
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Speaker 3: and World War Two. In the process, he got shot
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Speaker 3: in the face one that's right, in the face. He
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Speaker 3: lost an eye to left, the old lefty, and he
9:13
Speaker 3: was also shot through the skull, which is kind of
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Speaker 3: also in the face, one might argue. In addition to
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Speaker 3: the hip leg, ankle and ear.
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Speaker 2: I mean, this is a.
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Speaker 3: Real ship of thesis kind of guy, right, Like, was
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Speaker 3: he even still himself? I think the Terminator comparison holds
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Speaker 3: true here, and the Boer War been one that you
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Speaker 3: know a lot of wars. I didn't know my name,
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Speaker 3: but it was apparently a pretty gnarly one.
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Speaker 1: It was narsty, as our friends at Dad's garage like
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Speaker 1: to say, it was just a terrible, terrible situation. A different,
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Speaker 1: different show could be made about that. And to your point,
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Speaker 1: Nold Adrian got his balls rocked twice once literally literal.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: It was shot in the stomach, which is always nasty wound,
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Speaker 1: and it was the Royd we said the hip earlier
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Speaker 1: and off air we were also talking about, you know,
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Speaker 1: we're dudes, like how close did the bullet get?
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Speaker 2: Oh? Gosh, pretty close, you know what I mean.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, he could have easily died by any one of
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Speaker 3: these injuries, let alone all of them, but.
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Speaker 2: He didn't, as we indicated.
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Speaker 3: In fact, he was kind of just taken out of
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Speaker 3: the of the conflict zone and then shipped back to
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Speaker 3: Mary Old England in order to recover and convalesce.
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Speaker 2: And the news that he.
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Speaker 3: Was in a hospital, in the military hospital with battle
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Speaker 3: injuries came as quite the surprise to his old dad,
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Speaker 3: who again was not aware of any of his son's exploits.
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Speaker 3: And one might argue perhaps a little bit of a
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Speaker 3: negligent parents if he just assuming that his son was fine,
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Speaker 3: did even check on him.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, aristocrats a going on. Yeah, you you
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Speaker 1: wait till your kid turns eighteen. You give them a
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Speaker 1: firm handshake, you know, and you save.
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Speaker 2: Him off the boarding school and the right the honor. Dude,
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Speaker 2: even before college.
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Speaker 3: I mean a lot of times he's aristocratic youths would
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Speaker 3: be out of the home way before that.
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Speaker 1: His stepmother did send him to a boarding school exactly,
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Speaker 1: and growing up in Cairo, uh as as a little
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Speaker 1: European aristocrat has got to be you're in somewhat of
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Speaker 1: a bubble, right. So one of the weirdest things here
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Speaker 1: is that Adrian got this taste of danger and death.
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Speaker 1: He did almost die, But I would argue tasting danger
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Speaker 1: like that is similar to encountering hot sauce. Sometimes you
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Speaker 1: get addicted. He got addicted.
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Speaker 2: He was a real heat seeker.
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Speaker 3: To quote our boy from from the Dough Boys podcast, exactly, man,
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Speaker 3: I mean it's it's he had a taste for danger,
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Speaker 3: and it's you know, he must have had that from
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Speaker 3: the start because he was set up to live a
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Speaker 3: cush life.
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Speaker 2: He could have gotten some diplomatic posts, you know, or whatever,
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Speaker 2: and then nepoed in Colonel Curtsy, that's really interesting, you're yeah,
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Speaker 2: and you're of course referring to the infamous character played
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Speaker 2: by Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now specifically that not Heart
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Speaker 2: of Darkness, that specifically in the film, someone who just
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Speaker 2: had a taste for adventure and needed to get away
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Speaker 2: from their kind of posh, civilized upbringing.
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Speaker 3: And he also became a naturalized British citizen. And when
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Speaker 3: World War One broke out in November of nineteen fourteen,
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Speaker 3: he served with a Sawmaliland Samaliland camel core which was real. Yeah,
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Speaker 3: check out the picture. They are actually riding camels Somaliland.
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Speaker 2: Right. So this like is this anarrea that would now
12:57
Speaker 2: be considered Somalia or.
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Speaker 1: Small land is interesting because it's in uh we use
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Speaker 1: this word carefully or this phrase carefully. It is a
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Speaker 1: liminal space right now. So there's Somalia and over at
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Speaker 1: the coast of the continent there's Somala Land called the
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Speaker 1: Republic of Smala Land, but it is unrecognized by the
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Speaker 1: global order. It's right there on the horn of Africa.
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Speaker 2: Okay.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's also apparently a more stable government than Somalia.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we know they've certainly had struggles over the years,
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Speaker 2: so that he was fighting for what's called you point
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Speaker 2: out in the outline, this is an incredible name, the
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Speaker 2: Dervish State. I assume this is the the related to
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Speaker 2: the famed Whirling Dervishes.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's weird because we have to remember colonialism
13:52
Speaker 1: still in full swing there. The the Dervish State is
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Speaker 1: to the European powers, it's like an upstart, upstart terrorist movement.
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Speaker 1: But of course to the Dervish State, the European powers
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Speaker 1: are the terrorist. There's this attack on a fort called
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Speaker 1: Shimber Barris in nineteen fourteen, same year as he said
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Speaker 1: that World War One breaks out. This is a Dervish stronghold,
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Speaker 1: and our buddy Adrian gets shot again. This is the
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Speaker 1: time we were talking about earlier. He gets shot in
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Speaker 1: the arm, and he gets shot in the face where
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Speaker 1: he loses his left eye and part of his ear.
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Speaker 1: He later will get one of his many commendations for this.
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Speaker 1: He gets the Distinguished Service Order or DSO for this one.
14:52
Speaker 1: And I think you and I are going to have
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Speaker 1: a lot of fun playing around with voices, because we're
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Speaker 1: jumping around in time. In nineteen sixty four, there's a
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Speaker 1: guy who served alongside Carton to Wyart in Smaller Land,
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Speaker 1: and he has the weirdest description of our buddy Adria.
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Speaker 1: This is from Lord is May.
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Speaker 2: It's a weird one, Ben, because I swear when I
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Speaker 2: read this quote it feels like it wants to be
15:20
Speaker 2: read in some sort of foghorn leghorn like southern accent.
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Speaker 2: Go for it. I can't. I can't quite picture reading
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Speaker 2: this in a heavy British accent because of some of
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Speaker 2: the little turns of phrase. I'm gonna do it, Yeah,
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Speaker 2: go for it. Let's see. He didn't check his stride,
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Speaker 2: but I think the bullet stung him up. As his
15:37
Speaker 2: language was awful. The doctor could do nothing for his eye,
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Speaker 2: but he had to keep him with us. He must
15:44
Speaker 2: have been in agony. And how do you even read
15:48
Speaker 2: that in a British accent? Does it feel right? I
15:50
Speaker 2: don't know how was.
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Speaker 1: He in agony? We'll find out as you continue Lord
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Speaker 1: Ismay's statement, I'll switch the voice up a little bit.
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Speaker 1: He says, I honestly believe that he regarded the loss
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Speaker 1: of an eye is a blessing as it allowed him
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Speaker 1: to get out of simolaland to Europe, where he thought
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Speaker 1: the real action was.
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Speaker 2: Was okay, that's the true Lord is man. I don't know.
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Speaker 2: Something about stun him up just seems very like Southern.
16:19
Speaker 2: It's almost totone to me that thank you, you nailed
16:24
Speaker 2: exactly what I was trying to art.
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Speaker 1: Are you cross?
16:29
Speaker 2: I am your huckleberry and you know that to be true. Ben.
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Speaker 3: This guy, by the way, though, this fella that we're
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Speaker 3: talking about today, Carton de Wire, has a bit of
16:39
Speaker 3: a doc holiday tombstone kind of looks to him as well. Buddy,
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Speaker 3: you posted an incredible photo of this dude in his
16:46
Speaker 3: military dress with many of his decorations pins to his
16:50
Speaker 3: chest and a sort of a widow's.
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Speaker 2: Peak kind of thinning hairline and an incredible bushy mustache
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Speaker 2: that's a little brown than his hair, which is kind
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Speaker 2: of black. And he's got this imperially kind of slim
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Speaker 2: elf like almost quality to him, with his pointsy ears
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Speaker 2: and very knife like features and.
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Speaker 3: A badass eye patch and a cravat around his neck.
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Speaker 1: And he goes back to England again after you know,
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Speaker 1: losing part of his ear and the entirety of his
17:23
Speaker 1: left eye Odin style, And of course he got shot
17:26
Speaker 1: in the arm, but he wasn't worried about that. He
17:29
Speaker 1: goes to a nursing home in Park Lane and this
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Speaker 1: becomes his go to recovery place from his many wartime injuries.
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Speaker 1: He went there so often that eventually the story goes
17:42
Speaker 1: the staff just started keeping his personal pajamas clean and
17:46
Speaker 1: ironed and ready because they knew he would be back eventually.
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Speaker 2: That's so civilized, though, isn't that, Ben?
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Speaker 3: Just the idea that he had, like his personal pajamas
17:56
Speaker 3: that is kept on hand, it's already pressed for him. Yeah,
18:00
Speaker 3: it's I don't know the idea I love. I love
18:01
Speaker 3: a good old fashioned pajama. But side note, Ben, that
18:05
Speaker 3: you found about the eye. When he first lost it,
18:09
Speaker 3: he had a glass eye, which you point out quite accurately.
18:13
Speaker 3: As someone who's never had to wear contacts, I know
18:16
Speaker 3: they can be very very vexing, irritating, right, like painful
18:20
Speaker 3: at times?
18:20
Speaker 2: Right? Can you imagine that taken to the nth.
18:23
Speaker 3: Degree, like a literal piece of glass that has shoved
18:27
Speaker 3: in your empty eye sockets? Not to be too crass
18:30
Speaker 3: about it, but that just sounds really unpleasant.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's yeah, you're absolutely right. For anybody who's ever had,
18:37
Speaker 1: you know, a a shard of glass or a splinter
18:40
Speaker 1: of glass in your finger or something like that, imagine
18:44
Speaker 1: an orb of glass in as you said, your eye socket.
18:48
Speaker 2: They don't do that anymore.
18:49
Speaker 3: There's probably better technolog materials, right, because I mean, you know,
18:54
Speaker 3: it would be smooth, but I just can't it would.
18:56
Speaker 2: I can't imagine that it would.
18:58
Speaker 3: It would sit right, and it would be constantly rubbed
19:01
Speaker 3: because even a smooth piece of glass, there's imperfections on
19:04
Speaker 3: the surface, and I imagine there could be little chinks
19:07
Speaker 3: in it kind of that could just absolutely rub you
19:09
Speaker 3: the utter wrong way.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, he had and this is you know, this
19:15
Speaker 1: is more than a century ago, so he had a
19:18
Speaker 1: much earlier kind of glass eye technology. And the legend
19:23
Speaker 1: is that he hated it, like you said, vexing irritating.
19:27
Speaker 1: So at some point he was in a moving taxi
19:31
Speaker 1: and he just said, forget this, and he plucked his
19:35
Speaker 1: glass eye out of his eye socket and threw it
19:38
Speaker 1: out into the road and just rocked an eye patch.
19:42
Speaker 2: It was just sound you like to make. But yeah,
19:44
Speaker 2: I mean seriously, brother, pull in the eyes Sode.
19:47
Speaker 3: Oh dude, that just makes me cringe to my deepest core.
19:51
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, I wonder if if Pop don't like that,
19:54
Speaker 1: Oh man.
19:55
Speaker 2: You would have had to dig his finger in around
19:56
Speaker 2: the sides. And I mean sorry not to be too
19:59
Speaker 2: graphic about it, but I can't. I mean, you point
20:01
Speaker 2: out too. Ben, you use the term king moves, which
20:04
Speaker 2: I think is utterly appropriate.
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Speaker 3: But still, as we mentioned earlier, he his thirst for
20:11
Speaker 3: action and adventure did not diminish with his literal losing
20:16
Speaker 3: of various pieces of his body.
20:19
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, so he by February of nineteen fifteen, just
20:24
Speaker 1: a year later, not even he's back and he wants
20:27
Speaker 1: to go to what beat Me here? Max, as some
20:30
Speaker 1: of our US veterans in the crowd are familiar with.
20:33
Speaker 1: He wants to be in this ship.
20:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the ship in this case would be the
20:38
Speaker 3: all famous, All Quiet after Everyone's Dead Western Front.
20:43
Speaker 2: Oh that was a good book.
20:45
Speaker 3: He there's a threat film adaptation of late last year.
20:49
Speaker 3: I think it's I haven't seen it, but I've heard
20:51
Speaker 3: it is absolutely heartbreaking.
20:53
Speaker 2: Movie night Powerful We're gonna have Okay, sure? Why not?
20:57
Speaker 2: Why not? Not? Exactly ridiculous, but apparently it's quite well.
21:00
Speaker 2: It's a movie night for us.
21:02
Speaker 1: We'll go to your house, is set up the projector
21:04
Speaker 1: in the backyard.
21:05
Speaker 2: Oh man, we gotta do it. It's getting to be
21:07
Speaker 2: that kind of weather. Yeah.
21:09
Speaker 1: So, over the next three years, from nineteen fifteen to
21:13
Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, our buddy Adrian gets more wounds. He's at
21:18
Speaker 1: the Battle of the Song where he gets the bullet
21:21
Speaker 1: to the skull you were talking about earlier. He gets
21:23
Speaker 1: also popped in the ankle.
21:25
Speaker 2: Yeah.
21:25
Speaker 1: He gets shot in the hip at the Battle of Passion,
21:29
Speaker 1: doll and forgive my pronunciation there. And then dude, he
21:35
Speaker 1: gets shot through the leg at another war. And then
21:39
Speaker 1: he gets shot through the ear at another conflict. And
21:43
Speaker 1: this is perhaps the most pivotal moment, Max. This is
21:46
Speaker 1: what we're talking with you about. Off air. So at
21:50
Speaker 1: some point his hand, his left hand, gets absolutely souped up. Mangles, yeah,
21:56
Speaker 1: mangled mangles, and he is yelling at the doctor. You know,
22:00
Speaker 1: I'm sure he's in great pain.
22:01
Speaker 2: Cut it off, cut it off, cut it off.
22:04
Speaker 1: And the doctor says, no, we can save the hand,
22:06
Speaker 1: and so Adrian just gives him that cold, one eyed look.
22:11
Speaker 1: And then this guy pulls off his own fingers.
22:16
Speaker 2: Twists off wrenches, tearing flesh and bone.
22:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is not Yeah, this is all it's it's
22:24
Speaker 3: it's not good. Well yeah, squelch. Indeed, I mean this
22:27
Speaker 3: guy was serious business. He does eventually have.
22:31
Speaker 2: To have the entire hand removed.
22:34
Speaker 1: And it's his left hand. So now this guy has
22:37
Speaker 1: one eye, one hand.
22:39
Speaker 2: Left eye, left hand right.
22:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, those are god, those are god. If you want to,
22:44
Speaker 1: if you want to talk to him, come at him from.
22:46
Speaker 2: His right I assume, I mean it seemed more common
22:50
Speaker 2: for people to be righty's uh so, perhaps hopefully he
22:55
Speaker 2: favored the right hand.
22:57
Speaker 1: Well, improvised adapt overcome so.
23:00
Speaker 3: True, also true, And if anyone could do it, it's
23:03
Speaker 3: our boy, the wired.
23:04
Speaker 1: And he's not finished yet. Like you said earlier, any
23:08
Speaker 1: one of these injuries could put people in the grave,
23:11
Speaker 1: or they would have counted their lucky stars and gone
23:14
Speaker 1: into retirement.
23:15
Speaker 2: Cut their losses, get out of dodge, you know. And
23:19
Speaker 2: again the guy had means it's wild to think, you're
23:23
Speaker 2: just so easy to.
23:24
Speaker 3: Think of like the army as a refuge for people
23:27
Speaker 3: that have no other opportunities and no other supporters.
23:30
Speaker 2: And I know that that wasn't always been the case.
23:32
Speaker 3: There are certainly people that join out of pure patriotism.
23:35
Speaker 2: I'm not discounting that at all.
23:36
Speaker 3: But this guy, at this point, I mean, he could
23:39
Speaker 3: have retired and just said, Okay, I did my time,
23:42
Speaker 3: I've lived my adventure.
23:43
Speaker 2: It's time for me to chill a little bit. But
23:45
Speaker 2: that just was not his way.
23:46
Speaker 1: No, he could have had one of those post presidential
23:49
Speaker 1: careers we talked about last week. Instead, he the First
23:55
Speaker 1: World War concludes and people aren't calling it World War
23:59
Speaker 1: one just yet because humans are optimistic. And he spends
24:03
Speaker 1: what we call the inter war gears in Poland, and
24:07
Speaker 1: he is now getting more into i would say, diplomacy.
24:13
Speaker 1: He's trying to engineer peace. But Poland is invaded in
24:18
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine, and like you said, he has to
24:22
Speaker 1: get out of dodge. He asked to ski daddle from Arsaw.
24:34
Speaker 3: As the Nazis made their way advancing upon the city.
24:38
Speaker 3: He was in a motorcade that was bombarded strafed by
24:44
Speaker 3: the Luftwaffa, the famous air force of the Nazis, and
24:50
Speaker 3: two of his party members started thinking like a D
24:54
Speaker 3: and D crew were killed. The survivors made it to
24:57
Speaker 3: Romania where Carton de Wired by the way, and you
25:00
Speaker 3: pointed out off my his full last name is Cartan Dwires. Yeah,
25:04
Speaker 3: I believe there referred to him as Dwired a couple
25:06
Speaker 3: of times.
25:06
Speaker 2: My apologies. He evaded arrest by using a fake passport
25:12
Speaker 2: to fly out of the country, so he was also
25:14
Speaker 2: rocking borderline secret agent vibes. You know what I mean,
25:19
Speaker 2: Like he was quick on his feet. There we go. Yeah,
25:22
Speaker 2: it's a paperwork. Yeah.
25:24
Speaker 1: He he is so down to clown. He is part
25:29
Speaker 1: of a combined Anglo French or British French attempt to
25:34
Speaker 1: prevent the Nazi powers from taking over a town in Norway, Namsos.
25:40
Speaker 1: This does not work out, but he gets sent by
25:43
Speaker 1: the British to Yugoslavia in nineteen forty one and he's
25:48
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how they can how the British
25:51
Speaker 1: can help Yugoslavia fight against the invasion on the horizon.
25:59
Speaker 1: His crashes, however, in Libya at some point he's caught.
26:05
Speaker 1: He's sent to an Italian prisoner of war camp and
26:09
Speaker 1: he's held over for like two years. And the weirdest
26:13
Speaker 1: thing is, as we'll see, part of his freedom deal
26:19
Speaker 1: because he does get out of pow camp. Part of
26:21
Speaker 1: his freedom deal hinges on a tailored suit.
26:25
Speaker 2: I love this so much.
26:26
Speaker 3: He made five escape attempts in utter badass fashion.
26:30
Speaker 2: Over the next couple of years. He spent seven months
26:32
Speaker 2: digging a tunnel. At one point he did escape and
26:35
Speaker 2: evaded capture for eight days. He was sixty two at
26:40
Speaker 2: this point. Not to mention the eyepatch, the missing hand,
26:43
Speaker 2: and multiple serious, serious scars from his injuries, he also
26:48
Speaker 2: spoke no Italian whatsoever.
26:52
Speaker 3: He was scooped up and taken to Rome, where he
26:57
Speaker 3: was asked to relay a message back to the British
27:00
Speaker 3: telling them that Italy would like to would respectfully like
27:04
Speaker 3: to leave the axis. Yeah, and he agreed to do
27:07
Speaker 3: this on the condition that he was provided a fine
27:11
Speaker 3: tailored suit, in his words, as good as any available
27:15
Speaker 3: from the well known legendary tailor shops on the Savill
27:19
Speaker 3: Row in London Town.
27:22
Speaker 1: He also had some less diplomatic words, yes, because when
27:26
Speaker 1: he so he's in he's sixty two, right, and he's
27:30
Speaker 1: in this argument about a suit. They're going to set
27:33
Speaker 1: him free, and they're going to say, also convey this
27:37
Speaker 1: message that might change the course of the current conflict,
27:41
Speaker 1: and he says, I'll do it, but not in an
27:43
Speaker 1: Italian suit. And this is we don't want to offend
27:46
Speaker 1: any of our fellow Italian ridiculous historians. But this guy,
27:51
Speaker 1: Adrian said, I think Italian suits make people look like Jiggilow's.
27:57
Speaker 3: And you know, also, no shade to any jigs out
28:00
Speaker 3: there we go. Yeah, I could say Italian, American or
28:04
Speaker 3: otherwise Rob Schneider.
28:07
Speaker 2: The Italians did comply with his wishes and send him
28:10
Speaker 2: off to Lisbon, and then he made his way to
28:13
Speaker 2: England in order to deliver the message in due time.
28:17
Speaker 2: He spent the rest of the war representing Old Winston Churchill,
28:24
Speaker 2: old Cigar brandy Boy himself as a representative in China.
28:29
Speaker 2: He was an absolute dignitary at this point. I mean,
28:33
Speaker 2: it's the highest level of diplomat.
28:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there are a couple of reasons for this.
28:39
Speaker 1: We could argue, first his aristocratic background. Second, just being honest,
28:48
Speaker 1: this is very cold to say, but given his visible
28:51
Speaker 1: war wounds and as many decorations, he is great advertising.
28:56
Speaker 1: He's great propaganda for the British forces, like, hey, we're
28:59
Speaker 1: going to send this guy good optics.
29:01
Speaker 2: Despite missing the yes, Yes.
29:05
Speaker 1: Fifty percent eyesight, one hundred and fifty percent optics. One
29:10
Speaker 1: of the coolest pieces of scuttle but about his time
29:13
Speaker 1: in China is that Mao Zedong, who later goes on
29:17
Speaker 1: to do a lot of other things.
29:19
Speaker 2: Is heard of him?
29:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, I heard of him. He likes his books read
29:24
Speaker 1: and he uh, uncle Mao is known for doing these
29:31
Speaker 1: impromptu ted talks, these propagandistic monologues, and so he stands
29:37
Speaker 1: up during the dinner, you know, and he's just feeling it,
29:40
Speaker 1: he's feeling the spirit. He's pitching his idea for the
29:44
Speaker 1: course of the Chinese nation, and Carton de Ware says, Nah,
29:52
Speaker 1: this is malarkey, this is balder dash. Why are you
29:55
Speaker 1: not attacking the Japanese forces right now? And the room
30:00
Speaker 1: falls silent. You can hear a pin drop ball.
30:04
Speaker 2: Z uh yeah, and now is it first joins the
30:09
Speaker 2: silence before erupting into laughter. I mean, do you, ben,
30:14
Speaker 2: do you think this was out of just like some
30:18
Speaker 2: form of respect for the audacity that this guy had
30:22
Speaker 2: to call him out in that way.
30:24
Speaker 1: I think respect for audacity, And also it was a
30:30
Speaker 1: it was a very brusque way of saying something that
30:34
Speaker 1: Mao Zedong probably already agreed with Yeah, you know what
30:38
Speaker 1: I mean.
30:39
Speaker 2: Mm hm.
30:40
Speaker 1: So in a way, I don't know, we weren't in
30:43
Speaker 1: the room, but in a way, it's almost as if
30:45
Speaker 1: Adrian was weirdly hype manning mao Zog's other geopolitical ambitions.
30:53
Speaker 2: That's a good point.
30:53
Speaker 1: But also you're not supposed to interrupt that guy. So Adrian,
30:57
Speaker 1: I would say this Coounts has taken another gunshot because
31:00
Speaker 1: he got very close to being killed.
31:02
Speaker 3: Oh sure, he definitely took a shot at the King
31:04
Speaker 3: and would argue it landed, but in a different kind
31:08
Speaker 3: of way, you know, conversationally. So Cardin Dewire was promoted then,
31:14
Speaker 3: after a long and illustrious military career, to the rank.
31:17
Speaker 2: Of major general. He was the very model of a
31:21
Speaker 2: modern major general.
31:22
Speaker 3: In fact, he was also made such a British title,
31:26
Speaker 3: I love it so much, a.
31:27
Speaker 2: Night Commander of the Order of the British Empire in
31:30
Speaker 2: nineteen forty five.
31:32
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and you might expect him to go down
31:39
Speaker 1: like the ancestors of Lieutenant Dan And I love that
31:43
Speaker 1: Forrest Gump reference because I recently rewatched the film. But
31:47
Speaker 1: he didn't die in war time. After all these injuries
31:52
Speaker 1: added up the toll they took on his body. He retired.
31:56
Speaker 1: He wrote an autobiography which you can read now. I
32:00
Speaker 1: don't love the name, but it's called Happy Odyssey, The
32:04
Speaker 1: Memoirs of Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton de Wyart. And
32:10
Speaker 1: Winston Churchill wrote the forward for the book. That's yeah, no, no, Biggs,
32:15
Speaker 1: that's a cos I for sure. And Mawsey Dong wrote
32:18
Speaker 1: the afterword. Now that's yeah. Mawse Dog is like, hey, also, lmao,
32:23
Speaker 1: this guy's hilarious.
32:24
Speaker 2: This guy.
32:27
Speaker 1: So so it comes to pass that Adrian's first wife,
32:32
Speaker 1: who we haven't really mentioned, she passes away. He marries
32:36
Speaker 1: another lady who is twenty three years younger than him.
32:40
Speaker 1: They have a happy marriage by all accounts. He dies
32:44
Speaker 1: no children though, huh no no, just like the Mountain
32:47
Speaker 1: Goats song, love.
32:51
Speaker 2: Both yeah and he is.
32:56
Speaker 1: He passes away when he's eighty three years old, which
32:58
Speaker 1: is a very long life.
33:01
Speaker 2: Not from injuries sustained in battle, just from good old
33:05
Speaker 2: old age. Yeah, and he died of old. He died
33:09
Speaker 2: of the old.
33:10
Speaker 1: And it's June fifth, nineteen sixty three, so this guy
33:15
Speaker 1: has lived up to the sixties. He passes way in
33:19
Speaker 1: County Cork, Ireland. And this is something I'd love your
33:22
Speaker 1: opinion on this. I don't quite understand it. We'll have
33:26
Speaker 1: to do more digging. Oh gosh, poor choice of words.
33:30
Speaker 1: He is buried by a church near him and his
33:36
Speaker 1: second wife's home, but he's not in the graveyard. He's
33:41
Speaker 1: like just on the other side of the graveyard wall.
33:45
Speaker 3: You know, friend of the show. I think he listens
33:47
Speaker 3: to stuff they don't want you to know. Maybe he
33:49
Speaker 3: listens to ridiculous history every now and again. But Andy
33:52
Speaker 3: Buck who is He's from County Cork, Ireland, and you'll
33:57
Speaker 3: remember him as the guitarist musician in a band called
34:00
Speaker 3: Sky Trumpets.
34:01
Speaker 2: He wrote into us about our topic, you know.
34:03
Speaker 3: And anyway, he's long been a listener of the show
34:05
Speaker 3: and I got to spend some time with him when
34:07
Speaker 3: I was in Berlin a few years ago and stayed
34:09
Speaker 3: in touch.
34:09
Speaker 2: Lovely dude.
34:10
Speaker 3: But I would love to reach out to him and
34:11
Speaker 3: maybe get some of these questions answered on the ground,
34:14
Speaker 3: because he is right there and it's not.
34:15
Speaker 2: A very large area. I bet you he's familiar with
34:17
Speaker 2: this guy's grave.
34:19
Speaker 1: Awesome, Awesome, I bet you're right. So we've got to
34:24
Speaker 1: can you reach out to Andy and see I'd be
34:26
Speaker 1: cool to see a picture. And that is our show
34:29
Speaker 1: for today.
34:30
Speaker 2: Again.
34:30
Speaker 1: You can read Happy Odyssey for more. I have read it.
34:34
Speaker 1: It is a rollicking page turner.
34:37
Speaker 2: How could it not be right? He seemed like a
34:39
Speaker 2: cool guy, right, I mean, I don't know, man?
34:42
Speaker 1: No, Well, okay, I just considered a hero in the
34:47
Speaker 1: United Kingdom.
34:48
Speaker 3: You think he might have been a pill? I mean,
34:49
Speaker 3: we don't have We certainly don't have any He didn't
34:51
Speaker 3: do any war crimes that we know of, at least,
34:53
Speaker 3: is right, So now we know.
34:56
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, Ben, You're right. And maybe I'm being a.
34:58
Speaker 3: Little too rose colored glasses about to do. I just
35:01
Speaker 3: I am a bit in awe of his bad astery.
35:03
Speaker 3: But you don't achieve that level of bad assy without
35:06
Speaker 3: breaking a few eggs. Perhaps, Yeah, yeah, or Lucy and
35:11
Speaker 3: I and he's shot, oh exactly, and.
35:19
Speaker 2: So we lived through five wars.
35:21
Speaker 1: You can love him or hate him, but there is
35:23
Speaker 1: no denying it. This man was darn near unkillable. And
35:30
Speaker 1: with that we want to thank you for tuning in.
35:33
Speaker 1: Please join us for some more explorations of aristocracy and
35:38
Speaker 1: royalty later this week, when we are giving you for
35:42
Speaker 1: now are for now on royal deaths.
35:45
Speaker 2: I can't wait, bend. I just want to end, maybe
35:47
Speaker 2: with this quote that you found that I think is
35:49
Speaker 2: so fitting and funny from Happy Odyssey right when he
35:53
Speaker 2: was asked about all the five wars that he participated in.
35:56
Speaker 2: His response was very pithy.
35:58
Speaker 3: He just said, it's borderline frankly, my dear, I don't
36:01
Speaker 3: give a damn Frankly, I enjoyed the war.
36:05
Speaker 1: I think he said that pretty much every time someone
36:10
Speaker 1: asked him about a war, like.
36:11
Speaker 2: It was jolly good fun, the four.
36:13
Speaker 1: War, World War One, World War two, some of his
36:17
Speaker 1: other tangles. Yeah, it's very fascinating, fascinating person. We also
36:24
Speaker 1: were always fascinated with the people who make ridiculous history possible,
36:28
Speaker 1: and that's why Yeah, you and I like to end
36:31
Speaker 1: with some big, big thank yous, starting with the super producer,
36:35
Speaker 1: mister Max Williams.
36:37
Speaker 3: Yes, indeed, thanks to Alex Williams who composed this theme,
36:40
Speaker 3: Christoph Frasciotis needs, Jeff Coats here in spirit, Jonathan s
36:43
Speaker 3: trick on the quizter.
36:45
Speaker 1: Yes, and thanks also to our pals Gabe Luzier, Doctor Z,
36:49
Speaker 1: Jeff Andrea, the crew, the rude dudes over at ridiculous
36:54
Speaker 1: crime and of course brother Dan Soft and aj Bahamas Jacobs.
37:00
Speaker 2: Indeed, are you gonna Are you gonna let me slide
37:02
Speaker 2: with that one?
37:02
Speaker 1: Are you gonna ask your brother Dan soft Is?
37:05
Speaker 3: Nope, you keep your secret spend. I'm used to it
37:08
Speaker 3: by now, and frankly I live for it. And thanks
37:11
Speaker 3: to you been for this delightful and ridiculous research brief,
37:15
Speaker 3: and you know, just for for being you, being a friend.
37:17
Speaker 2: Travel down the road and back again.
37:19
Speaker 1: Shucks, I love a golden girl's reference right back at you. Wait,
37:22
Speaker 1: which golden girl?
37:23
Speaker 2: Are you the old one?
37:27
Speaker 1: Estelle Getty?
37:28
Speaker 2: That's the one? How about you? You're sort of a
37:33
Speaker 2: what was it? I want to be a Blanche. I
37:35
Speaker 2: want to be a Betty White so bad. But you're
37:37
Speaker 2: a Betty. Yeah, you're a Betty. I might fall into
37:40
Speaker 2: the blanch you You're not really a blanche. Max is
37:43
Speaker 2: more of a blanch classic blanche. We'll see you next time, folks.
37:54
Speaker 3: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
37:57
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.