Latest / Ridiculous History / CLASSIC: The WWII Naval Battle Won Using Potatoes

Transcript

CLASSIC: The WWII Naval Battle Won Using Potatoes · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Fellow ridiculous historians. Thank you so much for joining us
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: in today's classic episode. We've been on a bit of
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a World War two kick this week.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and also a bit of a whirlwind tour of
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: the world, which is why we're giving you a few
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: extra classics this week. We appreciate you bearing with us. Ben,
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: have you ever heard that insult that the Gallagher brothers
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: tend to throw at one another? I believe it is
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Liam calling Nol a potato.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: I have I have heard of that. I thought you
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: were talking about different Gallagher brothers. Yeah, throwing it stuff
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: at each other, and that also checks out it does.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that would be probably watermelons. But I don't know.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: I think it's a kind of a bit of a
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: misnomer to use a potato as an insult. The humble
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: potato is a staple food stuff. It is delicious, it
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: is hearty, it is resilient, and apparently also can be
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: used to win naval battles.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, as a fan of food fights, this one has
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: always been fascinating to me. This episode from twenty eighteen.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Long time ago, dow.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Weirdly enough, we are sharing some classics, as we mentioned earlier,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: because we are.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: On the road.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I have been in our hometown of Atlanta only like
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: twenty six hours this month. So from Afar we returned
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: to you with the true ridiculous story of a World
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: War two naval battle, one using potato.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: That's right, the usso bannon using potatoes against a hapless
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Japanese submarine. What a food fight. Indeed, let's roll it.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to the show.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Presley Neville O'Bannon was born in seventeen eighty four and
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: has nothing to do with this episode other than the
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: fact that there is a ship named after him, the
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: USS O'Bannon.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: But Ben, what did he do? Why they name a
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: ship after him? Can we make the episode about him
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: instead of the ship? I'm intrigued.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I have been trigued as well. Nol Well. He did
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: join the Marines in eighteen oh one, and as a
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: first lieutenant, he commanded a detachment of Marines in the
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: War with Tripoli, and during his operations with the US Navy,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: he led a successful attack on Dern in April twenty seventh,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: eighteen oh five, and this gave the Marine Corps its
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: a mortal phrase to the shores of Tripoli. Oh yeah,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: so he's you know, he's done stuff.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: I had some stirring stuff right there.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Enough to get a ship named after him.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Right, did you say my name? Yeah?
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: You're I think so you're nol R.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: I am okay. It's just a ritual thing. Yeah, we
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: should have the ritual. We got it, and I'm ben,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Yes you are. How do you feel about potatoes? I
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: feel great.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I like them almost as much as I like super
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: producer Casey Pegram, which you know, sets the bar very high.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Potatoes are pretty amazing.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Right, Boil and mash them, stick them in a stew. Yeah,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: right on, Charroo mets some Japanese sub mariners. There we go.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: They have many uses, and today's episode is about one
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: of those uses. We are exploring the story of the
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: USSO Bannon, which is a Fletcher class destroyer, right, and
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: some innovative warfare techniques. They used a story so bizarre
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: that I don't know about you man. At first, I
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: was skeptical. Did a beg credulity a bit?
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: It did? Yeah, it did, it did. But then when
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: you really get down to the nitty gritty of it,
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: you can kind of see how this absurd farce could
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: play out in real time. So how should we set
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: the scene. Let's talk first a little bit about the
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: ship in question, the uss O ban And you mentioned
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: it was a Fletcher class destroyer. What's a destroyer band?
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: It sounds scary, it's a great band, I said, yeah,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: it's a dude, Dan Bihar, Yes, I love destroyer. But
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: you know the shift. What's the ship?
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: They're these very fast, long endurance ships that are meant
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: to function as escorts in a fleet or a battle group.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: So I guess before World War Two you would say
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: destroyers were pretty light vessels, and they weren't great at
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: unattended ocean operations. They had to roll with a gang
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: of other ships, so typically there would be a number
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: of destroyers together. But after World War Two, guided missiles
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: allowed destroyers to step up and take the rolls that
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: used to be filled by battleships and cruisers exclusively.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Right, And the destroyers would, like you said, kind of
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: flock together in a squadron. And the squadron in question
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: today is Desron twenty one. Yesdes ro o N short
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: for Destroyer Squadron twenty one.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: There we go. Yeah, I like the way you're pronouncing that.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that squadron consisted of the Fletcher, the Radford,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: the Jenkins, the Lavalette, the Nicholas, the O'Bannon, which was oh,
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: the Nicholas was actually the flagship, the O'Bannon, the Chevalier,
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: I think it was in after Maurice, the French singer.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Surely Casey Maurice Chevalier. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, Okay,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Casey on the case, big underwhelming case in the case,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: but by no fault of his That was a silly
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: question because it's not fair for me to put that
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: much on Casey.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: You know what, though, we do hold him to a
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: very high standard.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Well, he is the standard. He is the bar which
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: we strive for on this show every day, daily basis.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: But I like how we're talking about assumptions because an
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: assumption is going to play a big role in this story.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Oh and by the way, I should mention that, yes,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the USS O'Bannon was named after the famous hero of Derna,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon, but it was actually the second ship
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: to be named after him.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: This guy is ship rich. Oh and then, just to
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: wrap up the squadron list, we've also got the Strong,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: the Tailor, the de Haven, the Howorth, and the Hopewell
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: the Hope.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Well, that last one's pretty inspiring, right. So this is
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the group of ships known as Desron twenty one. On
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: April fifth, nineteen forty three. They were returning from a
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: night of shelling attacking shore installations deep in the Solomon
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Islands in an area known as New Georgia. A lot
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: of this story comes to us from a first hand witness,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: a sailor named Ernest A.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Hare.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: You can read his direct account on destroyerhistory dot org.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: So there they are, they're on the way back from
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: shelling these installations, and one destroyer, the Obannon picked up
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: a radar ping that turned out to be Dunt Dunt Dune,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: a huge Japanese submarine cruising on the surface.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the uh the Japanese naval men sub mariners.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: I said that earlier. I don't know if that's accurate.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: And I know it's a superhero, the sub mariner. Yeah,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: sub mariner works work, okay, because you know they're on
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: a submarine. They're like asleep on the deck. Seems super risky, right, Like, yeah,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: I don't even think of submarine really having a deck,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: it's got this tower that you crawl up. But then
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: I guess it's got a flat parth that you can
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: hang out on. And that's what they were doing, and
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: they were asleep. And one description I found of this
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: event on shipcomrade dot com has a very specific description
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: of these sleeping sailors has them wearing dark shorts and
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: dinky blue hats. So I'm guessing in substantial little blue.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Hats, yes, small or insignificant.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Is that part of the nay of the Japanese naval
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: uniform It must have been.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: I mean navies have uniforms, but yeah, these were dinky
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: would mean tiny, so essentially saying that they have tiny.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Ye and bring that word back. You're gonna bring it back. Yeah,
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: I don't think people use that word or not. You know,
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Chuck likes to use hinky. That's different.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: He goes through a hinky phase every so often. That's
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant from movie Crush and stuff.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: You should know. That just means things are a little
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: dicey or there's like a yeah problem, it's like wonky.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: It's not quite problematic, right, but it's getting there. It's
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: get it could well get as is this situation. Hey, hey,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: nice Yeah.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so this submarine, wonder of wonders is already surfaced,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: and it's not appearing to react to the presence of
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: these destroyers of the Obannon in particular, so they take
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: the advantage. They say, well, if we have caught this
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: enemy vessel unaware, we better make the best of it.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: They approach at a rapid speed and they're preparing to
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: ram the sub to you know, physically knock the tar
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: out of it.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Because I saw some videos actually of these destroyers at
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: work doing that, and that was a thing I didn't
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: didn't really think about that. But they were like these
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: you know, seaborn battering rams, and they could pick up
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: speed pretty quickly and were made of pure steel and
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: could withstand tons of damage and inflict tons of damage
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: on smaller vessels.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and think about it from a strategic standpoint, you're
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: saving resources if you don't have to waste any kind
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: of artilleries, right, So in.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: A close range that's probably a more effective way of
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: dealing with it anyway, especially if you're pretty sure that
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: the lookouts of said target are asleep at the wheel
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: or the periscope as it were, or in this case
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: on the deck of the submarine. Right, So the.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Captain of the Obanon is trying to identify what sort
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: of sub this is, and then at the last minute
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: they said, wait, we shouldn't ram this thing because we
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: might blow ourselves up. If this sub is, for instance,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: the kind of sub that lays minds in the water.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know why I say it in the water.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: It's not like they're just laying mines in Poughkeepsie.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's a very weirdly specific type of sub. But
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: so they didn't want to blow themselves up, and they
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: decided that they're not going to ram them. So at
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: the last minute they swing to avoid collision, and they're
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: really close to the submarine.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: I imagine that probably caused the Japanese sub mariners to
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: awake with a start, right, wouldn't you think, because.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: As you said, they were on board the sub the
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: surface of the sub right, yeah, asleep. So they are
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: close enough now because of their last minute decision not
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: to ram the submarine. They are close enough now that
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: they can actually see the Japanese sailors on the deck.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: And you know, while that might sound weird for them
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: to be just sleeping out in the open on deck.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: We have to remember how claustrophobic a submarine environment could be.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: You're gonna do whatever you can, probably to get some
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: fresh air.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: A friend of mine, who was talking about the story says,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: I bet submarines smell like farts all the time.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Oh man, have you heard of hot racking?
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: No?
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, so this is just a side note. Space is
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: at a premium and so I believe it's called hot racking.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Different different individuals will share the same bunk just based
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: on their schedule. So you could have like three people
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: sleeping in the same bunk depending on their shift. So
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: you get up, you go to work, someone else lays
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: down in the bunk, they get up, they go to
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: work at the same time. You're walking back, and you
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: sleep where they slept.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: What does this have to do with farts.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying it's an unhygienic situation.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: Ah, yes, yes, agreed.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: I don't want a hot bunk hot rack with anybody.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Well, as you said hot bunk, and I immediately thought
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: of hot box. Oh no, that's just where you fart
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: and pull the covers up. Wow, this is really gone
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: off as an it man so here we go.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: It's understandable that these guys want to get some fresh air.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: But the ship is now awkwardly, very awkwardly close to
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: this submarine, and they have this Larry David seinfeldesque moment,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: that level of awkwardness because their ship was way too
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: close for them to fire guns on the sub and
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: since no one on deck carried a gun either, there
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: was not a shot at all from the US side.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: See what I'm saying. They were too close for the
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: trajectory of their guns to work.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Those are meant to be like longer range weapons, or
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: at least medium range. You got to be able to
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: get a beat on them and get a little arc right,
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: because these are shells. These aren't just like high powered
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: machine guns you can shoot directly. You got to kind
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: of lob these things. Yeah.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Oddly enough, there was a similar situation on the
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Japanese sub because none of the people on the deck
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: there had handguns. There was one gun that could have worked, though,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: right at least on the sub.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like a three inch deck gun. What
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: does that mean? Three inch like caliber? What are we
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: talking about here?
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: I think it means primarily that the gun fires a
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: projectile that's three inches long.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Okay, so that would be much more of a machine
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: gun type situation, right right, much more powerful than a handgun,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: but also much more able to fire at close range
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: and hit a target. True, So these Japanese sailors are
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: scrambling to get to this gun because they, you know,
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: this giant ship is just right up on them. Can
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: you imagine how terrifying that must feel. Oh yeah, on
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: both sides, well, on both sides, but especially on the
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: dudes who were just naked up there on top of
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: this little raft thing. I mean, not that a submarine small,
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: but in comparison to the size of the destroyer, it
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: would have been like, you know, being out in the
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: ocean and like coming up on a whale that wanted
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: to kill you. Right.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: And then on the obannon side, on the US side,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: can you imagine the escalating panic they see when they
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: realize that they can't fire anything and they're watching, They're
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: literally watching the folks on the submarine wake up, see
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: what's going on, and start running toward that deck gun
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: and they have to think fast.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: They did think fast, Because you may have mentioned this before, Ben,
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: I apologize if I missed it. But the Americans didn't
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: have handguns either on them for whatever reason, I guess,
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: I guess that's not I guess naval officers don't really
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: carry handguns.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Well, the thing I think that's important here is on
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: a destroyer, you're not really building it with the assumption
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: that you will get boarded or the individuals will be
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: in close hand to hand combat, you know what I mean.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: And just the official word is that no, Navy officers
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: do not carry handguns. They're trained in weaponry, but that
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: is not part of their kit, that is not part
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: of their uniform, their usual equipment.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Right, So they have to think fast, flicking around, who
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: has a gun? No one has a gun. Wait, the
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: sub has a deck gun and if they if these
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: guys reach it, then we are in for a terrible,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: terrible time. So the guys on the USS obannon look
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: around and they see these storage bins.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'm not it's not even clear from
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: reading up on this if they really, even in the moment,
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: knew quite what was in there. I think they were
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: just kind of like just frantically grabbing at anything, scrabbling
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: for purchase. And it turns out that these bins were
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: full of potatoes.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they so they started throwing these at the
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: guys on the submarine, and the Japanese sailors panicked because
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: they thought the potatoes were hand grenades, because that's the
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: kind of thing you would logically throw at someone in
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: a war.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Well, these Japanese folks must have thought that these American
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: sailors had their act together much more than they actually did.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: They gave them a little credit thinking, oh, surely they're
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: lobbing hand grenades at us, and it was dark, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: but you think when they gripped it, they would sense
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: the feel of the potato and then not have those
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: you know, traditional hand grenade rivets that you'd be used
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: to feeling, probably if you were a soldier.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think the adrenaline, yeah, it probably triggers
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: a fight or flight things.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: The mind took over and made those potatoes into hand
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: grenades in the mines of the Japanese and so they
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: started lobbing back. Yeah. Yeah, they didn't run away. That's
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: the best part.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: This is essentially a food fight at this point because
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: the Japanese sailors think that these are hand grenades, and
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: they try to get rid of them by picking them up,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: catching him, throwing them back at the obannon, and then
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: as this ensued, just lobbing potatoes back and forth at
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: each other. The crew of the obannon was able to,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: as Ernest Harris says, put a little distance between our
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: ship and the sub essentially to get far enough away
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: to be outer range of that deck gun. And it's
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: important to note at the same time they're getting out
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: of range of the submarine's deck gun, they're getting far
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: enough away for their own guns to come into play. Specifically,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: those guns are five dual purpose five inch thirty eight
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: caliber guns on single mounts, and those those five guns
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: are not the entirety of the armament. There were also
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: torpedoes aboard, and they also had anti aircraft armament, but
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: those five guns themselves, the five inch thirty eight caliber ones,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: that's a game.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Over, yeah, for sure. And it was game over because
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: they lobbed off a good shot and they caught the
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: Japanese right in the little tower thing what's it called,
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: with the conning tower conning tower, which is where they
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: you climb out of it to get to the top
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: to get to the deck. And I believe that's also
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: where the periscope is located, I believe, so run up
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: into that and that's the little piece that you see
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: if that's always you know, kind of floating over the
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: top when them when the submarine's not fully fully underwater
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: but mostly submerged, because yeah, I was trying to go
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: for a dive. It was trying to get out of there,
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: and they must have caught it right in the nick
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: of time because they you know, hit that tower and
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: it disabled the sub enough that it wasn't able to escape.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: And then the the obannon uh kind of maneuvered on
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: top of it and hit it with a depth charge. Yeah,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: which is like, how does that work?
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Just picture a picture like a slow orb or bomb
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: dropping down. Yeah, so a bop on the head, Oh
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: my gosh, which is I you know which. I'm not
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: saying to diminish the tragedy of human life, but all
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: indications we could find show us that the sub did
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: indeed sink due to that depth charge and the shot
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: at the Conning Tower.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Human life is indeed quite a tragedy.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Ben Yeah, yeah, I don't want to diminish that. And
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: off the obannon went. But we have we have two
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: other things that we thought were very interesting about this story. Uh,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: the Association of Potato Growers of heard about this potato
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: battle and they loved the idea.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they did. They loved it so much. And they
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: presented the crew of the Obannon with a plaque with
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: some problematic language.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, a tribute to the officers and men of
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: the USS Obannon for their ingenuity in using our now
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: proud potato to sink a And again this is a quote.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: This is an offensive phrase to sink a submarine in
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the spring of nineteen forty three, presented by potato growers
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: of the State of Maine on June fourteenth, nineteen forty five.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: One thing it's weird about this is they have sink
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: in quotation marks.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that seems like kind of a dig. Was it slang?
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: I don't know sure. I have a question too, bem. Yeah,
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: why why is this considered a main incident, the main
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: potato episode? And why were they in the waters of
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Maine though I thought they were lake somewhere else.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: No, they're in this by the Solomon Island.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: I know, That's what I thought. So why would Maine
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: have to do with then?
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: I guess because they grow potatoes.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: I no. I mean they literally called this event the
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: main Potato episode. I've seen it called that a bunch
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: of times.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Must have been main potatoes. Then the potatoes were supplied
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: by Maine.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: It's so weird, dude, It's such a strange nomenclature. Like
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: the only mention of Maine other than the fact that
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: it's called the main Potato incident multiple places, is the
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: fact that the O'Bannon itself was forged in Bath, Maine.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, that's a good call back in March of
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: nineteen forty one. So so now we don't know for sure,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: but we have two I would say, pretty good guesses.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: It was made to main or it was using potatoes
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: for Maine. There's a main element here, mainly mainly a
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: main element. It's not the main part of the story,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: but now Maine is an important But we got there, we.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: Got it there, here we are I think this is
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: the end. Well, no, no, there's a little bit more.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Do you want to talk a little bit more about
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: the ship and about destroyers, just as a little supplementary
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: wrap up?
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Sure, man, because destroyers are fascinating ships in the Obannon
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: in particular has way more war stories than just this
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: one potato incident.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Right right. And there's another great account from this guy,
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: Ernest Hare, just about like being a cadet or what
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: do you call, like a rookie first year sailor on
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: the Obannon, and you know, going into the Battle of Guadalcanal.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: And it's an angel fire website, which I thought I
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: thought went the way of geo cities still around. Huh, Yeah,
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: it's crazy. You ever try to find your old MySpace profile? Ben,
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: not a door I always care to open still around.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: I'll have to look it up and report back. But no.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: In this account, he talks about his early days on
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: the brand new, shiny new destroyer, the Obannon, fresh from
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: the iron works, he says, of bath Maine.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Also, the crew was as new as the ship, right.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Seventy percent of them were just.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: Raw recruits, a green ballz R. His stars in their eyes, right.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: But they're training, they're learning how to, you know, put
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: on gas masks and you know, nurse severed limbs and
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: all of this stuff. And he says, a really interesting
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: thing we're talking about the gas masks. Says, surely we
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: are not going to be so unlucky as to need
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: one of these things. Everyone knows you can get hurt
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: out here and maybe even killed, but these are things
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: that happened to the other guy, not you. Nevertheless, a
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: laugh or a smile became a rare item. And then
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: you refers to people over thirty as being old timers,
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: which makes me feel like a Grandpapa's right.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: But again, you know a lot of these recruits are
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: people who are straight out of high school too, you know,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: in many ways still kids.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: That's right, But in this account he does take some
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: solace in the fact that he's told his whole crew
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: is told that this ship is damn near impenetrable and unsinkable,
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: and is loaded with all kinds of bells and whistles.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: What kind of bells and whistles are we talking about it?
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: We've mentioned a few, but what else we got right?
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: So we mentioned some of the guns, both the anti
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: aircraft and the surface guns, also torpedoes, and you know,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: we mentioned depth charges are but he points out that
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: submarines actually run from this destroyer.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, except when they're you know, asleep right.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Right right, which again we have to empathize with the
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: utter terror the Japanese sailors must have felt with this thing.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Rolling up on them, as you said, like an angry whale.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: But let's get more specific. We mentioned those five inch guns.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: They also had ten forty millimeter guns for anti aircraft,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: seven twenty millimeter anti aircraft guns, ten torpedo tubes, six
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: depth charge projectors, and two depth charge tracks. So this
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: thing is pretty much ready to tangle.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. And you know, like I said, the
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: crew of this Maiden Voyage, you know, took some comfort
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: in that fact. But they were first engaged in a
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: battle called the Battle of Guadalcanal, which was fought in
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: the Pacific Theater of WW two around the island of Guadalcanal,
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: and it was the first big attack by the Allies
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: against the Empire of Japan. And this is the moment
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: when Hair and his sailor buddies kind of got a
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: taste of what war was really like. We always hear
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: about this idea of the romanticization of war by these
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: young bucks that come in thinking they're going to find
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: glory and instead they find you know, severed limbs and destruction,
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: flotsam and jetsam floating in the water.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: It reminds me of a poem from World War One
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: by a guy named Wilfred Owen called dulce it decora mest.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: I won't recite the whole thing because it's a little
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: bit long, but it I think encapsulates this I don't know,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: this universal idealism and then disillusionment and often death. It's
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: involved with war. The first engagement of the naval Battle
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: of Guadalcanal was relatively short in terms of time, but
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: there was massive damage to American light cruise and four
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: destroyers went down. Two Japanese destroyers were sunk.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: It was.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: It was terrible war as well, and so I think
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: we've established that the obandon had a number of other
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: adventures that were not potato related. However, I gotta say
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: the war is a terrible, terrible thing. I love the
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: image of these grown people having this sudden food fight,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: to say.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: It's a food fight, you know, among grown men. I
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: love it. Yeah, I know we need more food fights
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: in general. It did it did It did end in
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: the Japanese men being you know, brutally exploded by a
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: depth charge. That is true. That's not super cool.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: No, but again, food fights. Let us know, if you
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: ever want to get involved in a food fight, I
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: would totally be in a Wait. Really, no way, you
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: wouldn't do it?
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: No way? Do you hate fun? I don't hate No,
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: it doesn't sound like fun to me. It sounds like
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: a mess. I don't even like it when it happens
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: in movies. It grosses me out. Oh really yeah?
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: I think it depends on the type of food for me,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Like a potato is not a messy thing. And actually
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: potato could hurt you if it's hard enough.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: You ever shot a potato gun I built? Do you
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: ever make napalm? No? No, just potato guns?
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: And let us know about your experience with Where do
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: we go here? Potatoes? Life in the Navy building potato guns?
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Anarchist cookbook recipes what you.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: And speaking of you? Enough about us? What do you
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: say to some listener mail?
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: I say asa. Our first listener mail comes from Michelle k.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: Subject is weird people who built with beer bottles? Hello.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: I had gotten a little behind and finally listened to
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: the Weird people who Built Weird Things episode on the
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: five hour drive to visit my parents in the small
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: California coastal town of Cambria, which is just below Hurst Castle.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: It's about halfway between San Francisc's the Famoushurst Castle of
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: William Randolph Hurst, famously depictedtionalized in Citizen Kane, but it
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: is literally as it sounds, a castle. It's about halfway
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: between San Francisco and Los Angeles. In that episode, you
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: asked about other weird buildings, and I had one immediately.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: One of my favorite places in Cambria history is a
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: truly bizarre home built by hand called Nitwit Ridge, which
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: I love. It was built by a man named Art
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: Beal over the course of fifty years, mostly out of
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: trash that he dragged down the coast of Hurst Castle,
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: where he worked in native materials such as abalone shells.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: Tying in with another episode. There are beer cans built
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: into the structure as well. It's about our Heineken Bottle
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Bricks episode. He lived there for most of his life.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: It's uninhabitable at this point, but still sound enough for tours.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: It's a time capsule inside because when he left, he
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: left everything behind, so there are old clothes, food cans,
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: et cetera. And then she attached a couple of photos
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: here and it looked like a crazy Peter Pan treehouse.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: It's awesome. Thank you so much for the podcast. I've
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: enjoyed every episode so far and look forward to many more.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: Thanks for the company on my long drive.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: That's awesome. Thank you so much for writing to us, Michelle.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Also thanks to everyone who responded and sent us weird
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: buildings from your neck of the Global Woods. You know,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: please keep sending them as well, and let's do one more.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: May M writes to us and says, Hi, there, Ben
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: and Noel. I'm a big fan of the show. I
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: love the segment Casey on the case, Hi, Casey right on.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: I just finished listening to The States That Never Were,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: says May and during the episode, I was pondering, note,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: I am from Massachusetts, where I feel the attitude on
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: the South can often be derogatory or patronizing, but I
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: try my best to be inclusive of all folks.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: It's cool. We feel the same way about you in Massachusetts.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: I think Massachusetts is great.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: No, it's great.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: I'm joking, so May continues. I can't help but notice
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: the two of you do not speak in a Southern accent.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: I heard one of your fathers during extra credit and
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: was delighted by his pride in his Southern heritage and accent.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: I was wondering if you two naturally have an accent
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: and smooth it over because you're on the radio and
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: it alienates others, or if it's a thing you picked
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: up from TV and other media. I don't mean to
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: be rude. I'm and you're not being rude. Made this
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: is a great letter. I'm just curious on the ridiculous
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: history of why there is this divide and how our
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: country speaks, which is quite diverse in reality but in
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: movies and TV only if it is relevant. Is the
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Southern accent ever used late for work? Have to get going?
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: Should we show her our real voices? Ben? All right, man,
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: that's May. That's a real voice May. The first time
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: ever is May no Brown? This is how I sound,
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: bear my soul for you people. No more putting on
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: airs for this podcast.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you can hear Nole's German accent.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: Coming out there. No, I'm obviously kidding. No, I don't know.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: It is funny though we don't have any kind of
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: Southern accent. You're very strong. Do you have a code
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: switch though, and you're around like your folks, or you
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: go back home to Tennessee and you see some family
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: who have more of an accent. Do you ever kind
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: of find yourself drifting into it a little bit? No?
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: No, The only thing is sometimes vowels will come out strange,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: you know. But I actually I responded to this, and
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: one of the points that we wanted to make is
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: that here in the information age, a lot of people,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: at least in the US, are going to speak with
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: a more neutral Midwestern kind of accent because that's what's
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: encouraged in television on your local news station, for example.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: And I think we can all agree that diversity of
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: accents is a really fantastic thing, and they could be
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: more well represented in the media. Also, this is great embarrassment.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: I cannot pronounce you all to save my life.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: You just did it.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: No, you know what I mean? The contraction. Yeah, you
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: can't say y'ao. I just can't pull it off. Kind
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: of Southerner are you?
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: I quarrel with this, but well you got I got
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: quarrel with you now, Oh yeah, af up.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Well, our creative differences aside. The point that I think
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: the three of us wanted to make with accents is
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: that regardless of how people may or may not judge
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: you for the way you speak Uh. I would say,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: embrace your accent.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: It's part of what makes you you. And also accents
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: are dynamics. So if you move somewhere where people pronounce
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: things differently, such as Madonna moving to the UK or
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: US moving to Australia, eventually some things are gonna sink in.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: You're gonna start I mean, you're not automatically gonna start
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: yelling gooday at people.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: But good day. But we tend to we tend to.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: At least UH speak the way that people around us speak.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: It's true.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: So thank you so much to May and Michelle and
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: everyone else who wrote in. This is the end of
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: listener mail, but not our show. You can find us
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We're especially delighted with our
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: community page, Ridiculous.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Historians that we are. We made some lifelong friends there,
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: ridiculous Historians, and you can be a part of that
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: pool of humans as well by going to Facebook and
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: signing up. All you gotta do is tell the robot
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: what our names are, only one of them, and we
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: get a kick out of the ways people spell my
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: name and the ways people spell your last name. Ben.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: It is whot We also we also have T shirts
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: now we're legit.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, with our names on them spelled correctly.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: You can find one of our favorite T shirt designs
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: featuring our old pal slash nemesis Jonathan Strickland, the quister.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah used to go to tea public dot com slash
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: ridiculous History. And you can get that stuff slapped on
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: a mug or a mouse pad, or a backpack or
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: a laptop sleeve, anything pretty much you can think of
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: you you can slap a logo on it there. And
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: if you have ideas yourself for designs, anything you hear
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: in the show you think would be cool on a
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: piece of merch, let us know rt us at Ridiculous
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: at HowStuffWorks dot com. I'd like to thank super producer
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: Casey Pegram, like to thank Alex Williams, who composed our theme.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Like to think, our research associates, Christopher Hasiotis Eves, Jeff Coat,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: and most importantly, thank you for tuning in.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows