October 15, 2024 • 38 mins
Born to an aristocratic Belgian family, Adrian Carton de Wiart could have lived the easy life, with a plum job in government or law. Instead, however, he embarked on a bloody, hyperviolent career across multiple wars and decades. He was shot repeatedly, lost an eye, survived wounds that would kill an orindary man and, when doctor refused to remove his shattered fingers, Carton de Wiart ripped them off himself. Join Ben, Noel and Max as they learn more about this unkillable soldier.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Let's hear for the man, the myth legend,
our super producer, the unkillable mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Ali, Guys, I just got to ask that the top
of the show. Why art?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
That's the question that we've been asking for generations. What
even is art? What's the point whether art? Whether art?
Whence art?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It's one of the big reasons for living. Honestly, if
you ask me.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, and if you're saying, who is that guy we're
at That guy is Noel Brown? I am Ben Bowling.
We are. We are as you as you folks know,
ridiculous historians like you. We love very strange stories and
we can't believe we didn't get to this guy before Noel.
(01:20):
People often say that it doesn't matter how many times
you get knocked down, just how many times you get up,
Like that song, tell me.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
You never, you ain't never gonna beat me down.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
You take a whiskey, drink and drink of art, could
drink and drink the side of drink and drink the
Lago drink you know the one you sing the songs
that remind us of the good times and then you're
pissing the night away.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Right, funny story. Funny story about that band. Uh they
started as a collective of anarchist absolutely true.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
The funny thing is there's a great there's a really
crazy sort of plunder phonic noise the art band called
Negative Land, and I think I've mentioned before on the show.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I'm a big fan of that.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
They made a whole record where they sampled you two
and they got sued and they're like a big proponent
for copyright infringement as art. Speaking of art, but they
made a collaborative record with Chumbawamba that samples Teletubbies throughout
that time. It's called The ABC's of Anarchism and it's
it's a banger if you're into weird sample based noise music.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I remember when you told me about that night. Like
full disclosure, folks, Often in our explorations on this show,
Max Nolan, I will end up immediately going to our
group chat after we've recorded and sending each other references
on bits and bops, Bits and bops, you know, shout
(02:43):
out Mitchell Webb, look again the best Ku Klux Klan sketch.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Ever, objectively speaking, I'm trying to think of of one
that would even be in the running up against it,
but I'll have to get back to you.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
It's funny because they're they're British, and in the world
of comedy, those guys are badasses and we're.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
The Black Clansman episode of Dave Chappelle is pretty damn good.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, sorry, sorry, No, that's perfect because they should hang out.
But the the reason we're bringing up Mitchell Webb is
because they are British. And while there are many examples
of phenomenal individuals who took a licking and kept on ticking. Uh,
today we are over the moon, tox.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Is it TIMEX takes a licking and keeps on Sorry.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
We're we're we're over the moon. To introduce you to
a British guy you might not have heard of in
the United States. Yeah, it's surprising that I hadn't heard
of him either, norl This is Sir Adrian Carton de
Wyart again, why art and.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Shout out right up front to our buddy and fellow
ben over a badass of the week is very much
in his wheelhouse. I don't think he's covered this fellow,
but certainly red meat for a bad weeks.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, and if you like this episode, check out our
earlier conversations with Ben. He's a recurring guest in the
Ridiculous History Universe, and also check out his show Badass
of the Week. We were big, big fans before you
even got into podcasting, and this is the kind of
stuff that we would absolutely kick it with Ben on
(04:21):
so strap in, folks, this is bonkers. So our buddy.
Adrian is born into an aristocratic family out in Brussels
on May fifth, eighteen eighty h He is the eldest
(04:43):
son of We're gonna have a lot of fun with
names here, No Leon Constant, Gelaine Caughton des Wyart, who
is a lawyer and a magistrate, and Ernestine Venzig or
what do you think, Benz.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
That would go with it? I would put a little
a of the yes, sir.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
His life started pretty dramatically with some high stakes built
right in. While these are officially his parents, there was
a bit of wide rife speculation that he was actually
the illegitimates bastard son of that's sorry to add instult
to injury there of King Leopold of the second, the
(05:25):
ruler of Belgium and by most accounts, an absolute pill
of utter high magnitude.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Check out our good pal Robert Evans episodes on King
Leopold at his show Behind the Bastards. This guy, also,
Adrian has an international childhood. We're just gonna say it, honestly.
He was sort of a silver spoon kid. He was
way better off than most other people on the planet.
(05:56):
Born on May fifth, eighteen eighty life crossing back and
forth from Belgium to England. He's six years old and
for a long time, this is funny. For a long time,
based on his autobiography, people assumed his mom died when
he was six. That's not true. They divorced. His parents
(06:19):
divorced when he was six, and his father moved the
klan out to Cairo over in Egypt, and he worked
for this is so Cia precursor. He works for something
called the Cairo Electric Railways and Heliopolis Oasis Company. He
has deep government connections and energy connections.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Yeah, it would seem like that's kind of that ticks
all the boxes for that.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And it was there that he became fluent in Arabic.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
You know, as you may imagine, because of his moneyed background,
he was already set for life. He was educated at
the highest levels, the top schools, and he could have
done pretty much whatever he wanted to.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
He was a smart fellow.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
But around eighteen ninety nine he left the Balliol College
in Oxford to join the British Army.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
He wanted to serve his country.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
He was twenty years old at the time roughly, but
he claimed for the purposes of enlisting to be twenty
five years old, and he signed on just as Trooper Carton. Yeah,
it sounds like a good name for like a like
a goofy slapstick sitcom from the sixties or something, you know,
like Sergeant Billcoe.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
You know, right right, it's right up there with My
name is John last.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Name indeed, Yeah, yeah, And this is of course, I
think he wanted to be free of his aristocratic background.
I think he wanted to kind of have a fresh
start and not be seen as some kind of silver
spoon brat.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Also, there was a big thing at the time when
you were young man signing up for war you had
to have your father's consent, and he did not. He
didn't tell his dad his dad thought he was at
school at Oxford the full time. Yes, so that's probably
why he told some whoppers, some grilled flame whoppers about
(08:18):
his id in the first place. And the British had
no idea they had gained a kind of super soldier
Noel off Mic. We were talking about whether this guy
is considered a you know, a British version of Captain America,
or whether he's more like the Punisher.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
But or the terminator of sorts.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
There we go, we kid the not folks. This young man,
through either luck or skill, appeared to be positively unkillable.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
It would seem a combination of both. So let's get
into some conflicts. Some war talk here, Carton weird dewyart
excuse me, served in the Boer War, World War One,
and World War Two. In the process, he got shot
in the face one that's right, in the face. He
lost an eye to left, the old lefty, and he
(09:13):
was also shot through the skull, which is kind of
also in the face, one might argue. In addition to
the hip leg, ankle and ear.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I mean, this is a.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Real ship of thesis kind of guy, right, Like, was
he even still himself? I think the Terminator comparison holds
true here, and the Boer War been one that you
know a lot of wars. I didn't know my name,
but it was apparently a pretty gnarly one.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
It was narsty, as our friends at Dad's garage like
to say, it was just a terrible, terrible situation. A different,
different show could be made about that. And to your point,
Nold Adrian got his balls rocked twice once literally literal.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
It was shot in the stomach, which is always nasty wound,
and it was the Royd we said the hip earlier
and off air we were also talking about, you know,
we're dudes, like how close did the bullet get?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Oh? Gosh, pretty close, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Yeah, he could have easily died by any one of
these injuries, let alone all of them, but.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
He didn't, as we indicated.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
In fact, he was kind of just taken out of
the of the conflict zone and then shipped back to
Mary Old England in order to recover and convalesce.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
And the news that he.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Was in a hospital, in the military hospital with battle
injuries came as quite the surprise to his old dad,
who again was not aware of any of his son's exploits.
And one might argue perhaps a little bit of a
negligent parents if he just assuming that his son was fine,
did even check on him.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, I know, aristocrats a going on. Yeah, you you
wait till your kid turns eighteen. You give them a
firm handshake, you know, and you save.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Him off the boarding school and the right the honor. Dude,
even before college.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
I mean a lot of times he's aristocratic youths would
be out of the home way before that.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
His stepmother did send him to a boarding school exactly,
and growing up in Cairo, uh as as a little
European aristocrat has got to be you're in somewhat of
a bubble, right. So one of the weirdest things here
is that Adrian got this taste of danger and death.
(11:39):
He did almost die, But I would argue tasting danger
like that is similar to encountering hot sauce. Sometimes you
get addicted. He got addicted.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
He was a real heat seeker.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
To quote our boy from from the Dough Boys podcast, exactly, man,
I mean it's it's he had a taste for danger,
and it's you know, he must have had that from
the start because he was set up to live a
cush life.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
He could have gotten some diplomatic posts, you know, or whatever,
and then nepoed in Colonel Curtsy, that's really interesting, you're yeah,
and you're of course referring to the infamous character played
by Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now specifically that not Heart
of Darkness, that specifically in the film, someone who just
(12:27):
had a taste for adventure and needed to get away
from their kind of posh, civilized upbringing.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
And he also became a naturalized British citizen. And when
World War One broke out in November of nineteen fourteen,
he served with a Sawmaliland Samaliland camel core which was real. Yeah,
check out the picture. They are actually riding camels Somaliland.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Right. So this like is this anarrea that would now
be considered Somalia or.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Small land is interesting because it's in uh we use
this word carefully or this phrase carefully. It is a
liminal space right now. So there's Somalia and over at
the coast of the continent there's Somala Land called the
Republic of Smala Land, but it is unrecognized by the
(13:23):
global order. It's right there on the horn of Africa.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, it's also apparently a more stable government than Somalia.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yeah, we know they've certainly had struggles over the years,
so that he was fighting for what's called you point
out in the outline, this is an incredible name, the
Dervish State. I assume this is the the related to
the famed Whirling Dervishes.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, it's it's weird because we have to remember colonialism
still in full swing there. The the Dervish State is
to the European powers, it's like an upstart, upstart terrorist movement.
(14:09):
But of course to the Dervish State, the European powers
are the terrorist. There's this attack on a fort called
Shimber Barris in nineteen fourteen, same year as he said
that World War One breaks out. This is a Dervish stronghold,
and our buddy Adrian gets shot again. This is the
(14:36):
time we were talking about earlier. He gets shot in
the arm, and he gets shot in the face where
he loses his left eye and part of his ear.
He later will get one of his many commendations for this.
He gets the Distinguished Service Order or DSO for this one.
And I think you and I are going to have
a lot of fun playing around with voices, because we're
(15:00):
jumping around in time. In nineteen sixty four, there's a
guy who served alongside Carton to Wyart in Smaller Land,
and he has the weirdest description of our buddy Adria.
This is from Lord is May.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
It's a weird one, Ben, because I swear when I
read this quote it feels like it wants to be
read in some sort of foghorn leghorn like southern accent.
Go for it. I can't. I can't quite picture reading
this in a heavy British accent because of some of
the little turns of phrase. I'm gonna do it, Yeah,
go for it. Let's see. He didn't check his stride,
but I think the bullet stung him up. As his
(15:37):
language was awful. The doctor could do nothing for his eye,
but he had to keep him with us. He must
have been in agony. And how do you even read
that in a British accent? Does it feel right? I
don't know how was.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
He in agony? We'll find out as you continue Lord
Ismay's statement, I'll switch the voice up a little bit.
He says, I honestly believe that he regarded the loss
of an eye is a blessing as it allowed him
to get out of simolaland to Europe, where he thought
the real action was.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Was okay, that's the true Lord is man. I don't know.
Something about stun him up just seems very like Southern.
It's almost totone to me that thank you, you nailed
exactly what I was trying to art.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Are you cross?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I am your huckleberry and you know that to be true. Ben.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
This guy, by the way, though, this fella that we're
talking about today, Carton de Wire, has a bit of
a doc holiday tombstone kind of looks to him as well. Buddy,
you posted an incredible photo of this dude in his
military dress with many of his decorations pins to his
chest and a sort of a widow's.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Peak kind of thinning hairline and an incredible bushy mustache
that's a little brown than his hair, which is kind
of black. And he's got this imperially kind of slim
elf like almost quality to him, with his pointsy ears
and very knife like features and.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
A badass eye patch and a cravat around his neck.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
And he goes back to England again after you know,
losing part of his ear and the entirety of his
left eye Odin style, And of course he got shot
in the arm, but he wasn't worried about that. He
goes to a nursing home in Park Lane and this
becomes his go to recovery place from his many wartime injuries.
(17:38):
He went there so often that eventually the story goes
the staff just started keeping his personal pajamas clean and
ironed and ready because they knew he would be back eventually.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
That's so civilized, though, isn't that, Ben?
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Just the idea that he had, like his personal pajamas
that is kept on hand, it's already pressed for him. Yeah,
it's I don't know the idea I love. I love
a good old fashioned pajama. But side note, Ben, that
you found about the eye. When he first lost it,
he had a glass eye, which you point out quite accurately.
As someone who's never had to wear contacts, I know
(18:16):
they can be very very vexing, irritating, right, like painful
at times?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Right? Can you imagine that taken to the nth.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Degree, like a literal piece of glass that has shoved
in your empty eye sockets? Not to be too crass
about it, but that just sounds really unpleasant.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah, it's yeah, you're absolutely right. For anybody who's ever had,
you know, a a shard of glass or a splinter
of glass in your finger or something like that, imagine
an orb of glass in as you said, your eye socket.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
They don't do that anymore.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
There's probably better technolog materials, right, because I mean, you know,
it would be smooth, but I just can't it would.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I can't imagine that it would.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
It would sit right, and it would be constantly rubbed
because even a smooth piece of glass, there's imperfections on
the surface, and I imagine there could be little chinks
in it kind of that could just absolutely rub you
the utter wrong way.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
So yeah, he had and this is you know, this
is more than a century ago, so he had a
much earlier kind of glass eye technology. And the legend
is that he hated it, like you said, vexing irritating.
So at some point he was in a moving taxi
(19:31):
and he just said, forget this, and he plucked his
glass eye out of his eye socket and threw it
out into the road and just rocked an eye patch.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
It was just sound you like to make. But yeah,
I mean seriously, brother, pull in the eyes Sode.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Oh dude, that just makes me cringe to my deepest core.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yes, sir, I wonder if if Pop don't like that,
Oh man.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
You would have had to dig his finger in around
the sides. And I mean sorry not to be too
graphic about it, but I can't. I mean, you point
out too. Ben, you use the term king moves, which
I think is utterly appropriate.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
But still, as we mentioned earlier, he his thirst for
action and adventure did not diminish with his literal losing
of various pieces of his body.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Right, Yeah, so he by February of nineteen fifteen, just
a year later, not even he's back and he wants
to go to what beat Me here? Max, as some
of our US veterans in the crowd are familiar with.
He wants to be in this ship.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Yeah, and the ship in this case would be the
all famous, All Quiet after Everyone's Dead Western Front.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Oh that was a good book.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
He there's a threat film adaptation of late last year.
I think it's I haven't seen it, but I've heard
it is absolutely heartbreaking.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Movie night Powerful We're gonna have Okay, sure? Why not?
Why not? Not? Exactly ridiculous, but apparently it's quite well.
It's a movie night for us.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
We'll go to your house, is set up the projector
in the backyard.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Oh man, we gotta do it. It's getting to be
that kind of weather. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
So, over the next three years, from nineteen fifteen to
nineteen eighteen, our buddy Adrian gets more wounds. He's at
the Battle of the Song where he gets the bullet
to the skull you were talking about earlier. He gets
also popped in the ankle.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
He gets shot in the hip at the Battle of Passion,
doll and forgive my pronunciation there. And then dude, he
gets shot through the leg at another war. And then
he gets shot through the ear at another conflict. And
this is perhaps the most pivotal moment, Max. This is
(21:46):
what we're talking with you about. Off air. So at
some point his hand, his left hand, gets absolutely souped up. Mangles, yeah,
mangled mangles, and he is yelling at the doctor. You know,
I'm sure he's in great pain.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Cut it off, cut it off, cut it off.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
And the doctor says, no, we can save the hand,
and so Adrian just gives him that cold, one eyed look.
And then this guy pulls off his own fingers.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Twists off wrenches, tearing flesh and bone.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah, this is not Yeah, this is all it's it's
it's not good. Well yeah, squelch. Indeed, I mean this
guy was serious business. He does eventually have.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
To have the entire hand removed.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
And it's his left hand. So now this guy has
one eye, one hand.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Left eye, left hand right.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah, those are god, those are god. If you want to,
if you want to talk to him, come at him from.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
His right I assume, I mean it seemed more common
for people to be righty's uh so, perhaps hopefully he
favored the right hand.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Well, improvised adapt overcome so.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
True, also true, And if anyone could do it, it's
our boy, the wired.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
And he's not finished yet. Like you said earlier, any
one of these injuries could put people in the grave,
or they would have counted their lucky stars and gone
into retirement.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Cut their losses, get out of dodge, you know. And
again the guy had means it's wild to think, you're
just so easy to.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Think of like the army as a refuge for people
that have no other opportunities and no other supporters.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
And I know that that wasn't always been the case.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
There are certainly people that join out of pure patriotism.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
I'm not discounting that at all.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
But this guy, at this point, I mean, he could
have retired and just said, Okay, I did my time,
I've lived my adventure.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
It's time for me to chill a little bit. But
that just was not his way.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
No, he could have had one of those post presidential
careers we talked about last week. Instead, he the First
World War concludes and people aren't calling it World War
one just yet because humans are optimistic. And he spends
what we call the inter war gears in Poland, and
(24:07):
he is now getting more into i would say, diplomacy.
He's trying to engineer peace. But Poland is invaded in
nineteen thirty nine, and like you said, he has to
get out of dodge. He asked to ski daddle from Arsaw.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
As the Nazis made their way advancing upon the city.
He was in a motorcade that was bombarded strafed by
the Luftwaffa, the famous air force of the Nazis, and
two of his party members started thinking like a D
(24:54):
and D crew were killed. The survivors made it to
Romania where Carton de Wired by the way, and you
pointed out off my his full last name is Cartan Dwires. Yeah,
I believe there referred to him as Dwired a couple
of times.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
My apologies. He evaded arrest by using a fake passport
to fly out of the country, so he was also
rocking borderline secret agent vibes. You know what I mean,
Like he was quick on his feet. There we go. Yeah,
it's a paperwork. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
He he is so down to clown. He is part
of a combined Anglo French or British French attempt to
prevent the Nazi powers from taking over a town in Norway, Namsos.
This does not work out, but he gets sent by
the British to Yugoslavia in nineteen forty one and he's
(25:48):
trying to figure out how they can how the British
can help Yugoslavia fight against the invasion on the horizon.
His crashes, however, in Libya at some point he's caught.
He's sent to an Italian prisoner of war camp and
(26:09):
he's held over for like two years. And the weirdest
thing is, as we'll see, part of his freedom deal
because he does get out of pow camp. Part of
his freedom deal hinges on a tailored suit.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
I love this so much.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
He made five escape attempts in utter badass fashion.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Over the next couple of years. He spent seven months
digging a tunnel. At one point he did escape and
evaded capture for eight days. He was sixty two at
this point. Not to mention the eyepatch, the missing hand,
and multiple serious, serious scars from his injuries, he also
spoke no Italian whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
He was scooped up and taken to Rome, where he
was asked to relay a message back to the British
telling them that Italy would like to would respectfully like
to leave the axis. Yeah, and he agreed to do
this on the condition that he was provided a fine
tailored suit, in his words, as good as any available
(27:15):
from the well known legendary tailor shops on the Savill
Row in London Town.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
He also had some less diplomatic words, yes, because when
he so he's in he's sixty two, right, and he's
in this argument about a suit. They're going to set
him free, and they're going to say, also convey this
message that might change the course of the current conflict,
and he says, I'll do it, but not in an
(27:43):
Italian suit. And this is we don't want to offend
any of our fellow Italian ridiculous historians. But this guy,
Adrian said, I think Italian suits make people look like Jiggilow's.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
And you know, also, no shade to any jigs out
there we go. Yeah, I could say Italian, American or
otherwise Rob Schneider.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
The Italians did comply with his wishes and send him
off to Lisbon, and then he made his way to
England in order to deliver the message in due time.
He spent the rest of the war representing Old Winston Churchill,
old Cigar brandy Boy himself as a representative in China.
(28:29):
He was an absolute dignitary at this point. I mean,
it's the highest level of diplomat.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Yeah, and there are a couple of reasons for this.
We could argue, first his aristocratic background. Second, just being honest,
this is very cold to say, but given his visible
war wounds and as many decorations, he is great advertising.
He's great propaganda for the British forces, like, hey, we're
(28:59):
going to send this guy good optics.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Despite missing the yes, Yes.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Fifty percent eyesight, one hundred and fifty percent optics. One
of the coolest pieces of scuttle but about his time
in China is that Mao Zedong, who later goes on
to do a lot of other things.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Is heard of him?
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Yeah, I heard of him. He likes his books read
and he uh, uncle Mao is known for doing these
impromptu ted talks, these propagandistic monologues, and so he stands
up during the dinner, you know, and he's just feeling it,
he's feeling the spirit. He's pitching his idea for the
(29:44):
course of the Chinese nation, and Carton de Ware says, Nah,
this is malarkey, this is balder dash. Why are you
not attacking the Japanese forces right now? And the room
falls silent. You can hear a pin drop ball.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Z uh yeah, and now is it first joins the
silence before erupting into laughter. I mean, do you, ben,
do you think this was out of just like some
form of respect for the audacity that this guy had
to call him out in that way.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I think respect for audacity, And also it was a
it was a very brusque way of saying something that
Mao Zedong probably already agreed with Yeah, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Mm hm.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
So in a way, I don't know, we weren't in
the room, but in a way, it's almost as if
Adrian was weirdly hype manning mao Zog's other geopolitical ambitions.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
That's a good point.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
But also you're not supposed to interrupt that guy. So Adrian,
I would say this Coounts has taken another gunshot because
he got very close to being killed.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Oh sure, he definitely took a shot at the King
and would argue it landed, but in a different kind
of way, you know, conversationally. So Cardin Dewire was promoted then,
after a long and illustrious military career, to the rank.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Of major general. He was the very model of a
modern major general.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
In fact, he was also made such a British title,
I love it so much, a.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Night Commander of the Order of the British Empire in
nineteen forty five.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah. Yeah, and you might expect him to go down
like the ancestors of Lieutenant Dan And I love that
Forrest Gump reference because I recently rewatched the film. But
he didn't die in war time. After all these injuries
added up the toll they took on his body. He retired.
(31:56):
He wrote an autobiography which you can read now. I
don't love the name, but it's called Happy Odyssey, The
Memoirs of Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton de Wyart. And
Winston Churchill wrote the forward for the book. That's yeah, no, no, Biggs,
that's a cos I for sure. And Mawsey Dong wrote
(32:18):
the afterword. Now that's yeah. Mawse Dog is like, hey, also, lmao,
this guy's hilarious.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
This guy.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
So so it comes to pass that Adrian's first wife,
who we haven't really mentioned, she passes away. He marries
another lady who is twenty three years younger than him.
They have a happy marriage by all accounts. He dies
no children though, huh no no, just like the Mountain
(32:47):
Goats song, love.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Both yeah and he is.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
He passes away when he's eighty three years old, which
is a very long life.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Not from injuries sustained in battle, just from good old
old age. Yeah, and he died of old. He died
of the old.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
And it's June fifth, nineteen sixty three, so this guy
has lived up to the sixties. He passes way in
County Cork, Ireland. And this is something I'd love your
opinion on this. I don't quite understand it. We'll have
to do more digging. Oh gosh, poor choice of words.
(33:30):
He is buried by a church near him and his
second wife's home, but he's not in the graveyard. He's
like just on the other side of the graveyard wall.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
You know, friend of the show. I think he listens
to stuff they don't want you to know. Maybe he
listens to ridiculous history every now and again. But Andy
Buck who is He's from County Cork, Ireland, and you'll
remember him as the guitarist musician in a band called
Sky Trumpets.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
He wrote into us about our topic, you know.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
And anyway, he's long been a listener of the show
and I got to spend some time with him when
I was in Berlin a few years ago and stayed
in touch.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Lovely dude.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
But I would love to reach out to him and
maybe get some of these questions answered on the ground,
because he is right there and it's not.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
A very large area. I bet you he's familiar with
this guy's grave.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Awesome, Awesome, I bet you're right. So we've got to
can you reach out to Andy and see I'd be
cool to see a picture. And that is our show
for today.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Again.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
You can read Happy Odyssey for more. I have read it.
It is a rollicking page turner.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
How could it not be right? He seemed like a
cool guy, right, I mean, I don't know, man?
Speaker 1 (34:42):
No, Well, okay, I just considered a hero in the
United Kingdom.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
You think he might have been a pill? I mean,
we don't have We certainly don't have any He didn't
do any war crimes that we know of, at least,
is right, So now we know.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Okay, all right, Ben, You're right. And maybe I'm being a.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Little too rose colored glasses about to do. I just
I am a bit in awe of his bad astery.
But you don't achieve that level of bad assy without
breaking a few eggs. Perhaps, Yeah, yeah, or Lucy and
I and he's shot, oh exactly, and.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
So we lived through five wars.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
You can love him or hate him, but there is
no denying it. This man was darn near unkillable. And
with that we want to thank you for tuning in.
Please join us for some more explorations of aristocracy and
royalty later this week, when we are giving you for
(35:42):
now are for now on royal deaths.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
I can't wait, bend. I just want to end, maybe
with this quote that you found that I think is
so fitting and funny from Happy Odyssey right when he
was asked about all the five wars that he participated in.
His response was very pithy.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
He just said, it's borderline frankly, my dear, I don't
give a damn Frankly, I enjoyed the war.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
I think he said that pretty much every time someone
asked him about a war, like.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
It was jolly good fun, the four.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
War, World War One, World War two, some of his
other tangles. Yeah, it's very fascinating, fascinating person. We also
were always fascinated with the people who make ridiculous history possible,
and that's why Yeah, you and I like to end
with some big, big thank yous, starting with the super producer,
(36:35):
mister Max Williams.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Yes, indeed, thanks to Alex Williams who composed this theme,
Christoph Frasciotis needs, Jeff Coats here in spirit, Jonathan s
trick on the quizter.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yes, and thanks also to our pals Gabe Luzier, Doctor Z,
Jeff Andrea, the crew, the rude dudes over at ridiculous
crime and of course brother Dan Soft and aj Bahamas Jacobs.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Indeed, are you gonna Are you gonna let me slide
with that one?
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Are you gonna ask your brother Dan soft Is?
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Nope, you keep your secret spend. I'm used to it
by now, and frankly I live for it. And thanks
to you been for this delightful and ridiculous research brief,
and you know, just for for being you, being a friend.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Travel down the road and back again.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Shucks, I love a golden girl's reference right back at you. Wait,
which golden girl?
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Are you the old one?
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Estelle Getty?
Speaker 2 (37:28):
That's the one? How about you? You're sort of a
what was it? I want to be a Blanche. I
want to be a Betty White so bad. But you're
a Betty. Yeah, you're a Betty. I might fall into
the blanch you You're not really a blanche. Max is
more of a blanch classic blanche. We'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Let's hear for the man, the myth legend,
our super producer, the unkillable mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Ali, Guys, I just got to ask that the top
of the show. Why art?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
That's the question that we've been asking for generations. What
even is art? What's the point whether art? Whether art?
Whence art?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It's one of the big reasons for living. Honestly, if
you ask me.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, and if you're saying, who is that guy we're
at That guy is Noel Brown? I am Ben Bowling.
We are. We are as you as you folks know,
ridiculous historians like you. We love very strange stories and
we can't believe we didn't get to this guy before Noel.
(01:20):
People often say that it doesn't matter how many times
you get knocked down, just how many times you get up,
Like that song, tell me.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
You never, you ain't never gonna beat me down.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
You take a whiskey, drink and drink of art, could
drink and drink the side of drink and drink the
Lago drink you know the one you sing the songs
that remind us of the good times and then you're
pissing the night away.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Right, funny story. Funny story about that band. Uh they
started as a collective of anarchist absolutely true.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
The funny thing is there's a great there's a really
crazy sort of plunder phonic noise the art band called
Negative Land, and I think I've mentioned before on the show.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I'm a big fan of that.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
They made a whole record where they sampled you two
and they got sued and they're like a big proponent
for copyright infringement as art. Speaking of art, but they
made a collaborative record with Chumbawamba that samples Teletubbies throughout
that time. It's called The ABC's of Anarchism and it's
it's a banger if you're into weird sample based noise music.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I remember when you told me about that night. Like
full disclosure, folks, Often in our explorations on this show,
Max Nolan, I will end up immediately going to our
group chat after we've recorded and sending each other references
on bits and bops, Bits and bops, you know, shout
(02:43):
out Mitchell Webb, look again the best Ku Klux Klan sketch.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Ever, objectively speaking, I'm trying to think of of one
that would even be in the running up against it,
but I'll have to get back to you.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
It's funny because they're they're British, and in the world
of comedy, those guys are badasses and we're.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
The Black Clansman episode of Dave Chappelle is pretty damn good.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, sorry, sorry, No, that's perfect because they should hang out.
But the the reason we're bringing up Mitchell Webb is
because they are British. And while there are many examples
of phenomenal individuals who took a licking and kept on ticking. Uh,
today we are over the moon, tox.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Is it TIMEX takes a licking and keeps on Sorry.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
We're we're we're over the moon. To introduce you to
a British guy you might not have heard of in
the United States. Yeah, it's surprising that I hadn't heard
of him either, norl This is Sir Adrian Carton de
Wyart again, why art and.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Shout out right up front to our buddy and fellow
ben over a badass of the week is very much
in his wheelhouse. I don't think he's covered this fellow,
but certainly red meat for a bad weeks.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, and if you like this episode, check out our
earlier conversations with Ben. He's a recurring guest in the
Ridiculous History Universe, and also check out his show Badass
of the Week. We were big, big fans before you
even got into podcasting, and this is the kind of
stuff that we would absolutely kick it with Ben on
(04:21):
so strap in, folks, this is bonkers. So our buddy.
Adrian is born into an aristocratic family out in Brussels
on May fifth, eighteen eighty h He is the eldest
(04:43):
son of We're gonna have a lot of fun with
names here, No Leon Constant, Gelaine Caughton des Wyart, who
is a lawyer and a magistrate, and Ernestine Venzig or
what do you think, Benz.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
That would go with it? I would put a little
a of the yes, sir.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
His life started pretty dramatically with some high stakes built
right in. While these are officially his parents, there was
a bit of wide rife speculation that he was actually
the illegitimates bastard son of that's sorry to add instult
to injury there of King Leopold of the second, the
(05:25):
ruler of Belgium and by most accounts, an absolute pill
of utter high magnitude.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Check out our good pal Robert Evans episodes on King
Leopold at his show Behind the Bastards. This guy, also,
Adrian has an international childhood. We're just gonna say it, honestly.
He was sort of a silver spoon kid. He was
way better off than most other people on the planet.
(05:56):
Born on May fifth, eighteen eighty life crossing back and
forth from Belgium to England. He's six years old and
for a long time, this is funny. For a long time,
based on his autobiography, people assumed his mom died when
he was six. That's not true. They divorced. His parents
(06:19):
divorced when he was six, and his father moved the
klan out to Cairo over in Egypt, and he worked
for this is so Cia precursor. He works for something
called the Cairo Electric Railways and Heliopolis Oasis Company. He
has deep government connections and energy connections.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Yeah, it would seem like that's kind of that ticks
all the boxes for that.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And it was there that he became fluent in Arabic.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
You know, as you may imagine, because of his moneyed background,
he was already set for life. He was educated at
the highest levels, the top schools, and he could have
done pretty much whatever he wanted to.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
He was a smart fellow.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
But around eighteen ninety nine he left the Balliol College
in Oxford to join the British Army.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
He wanted to serve his country.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
He was twenty years old at the time roughly, but
he claimed for the purposes of enlisting to be twenty
five years old, and he signed on just as Trooper Carton. Yeah,
it sounds like a good name for like a like
a goofy slapstick sitcom from the sixties or something, you know,
like Sergeant Billcoe.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
You know, right right, it's right up there with My
name is John last.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Name indeed, Yeah, yeah, And this is of course, I
think he wanted to be free of his aristocratic background.
I think he wanted to kind of have a fresh
start and not be seen as some kind of silver
spoon brat.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Also, there was a big thing at the time when
you were young man signing up for war you had
to have your father's consent, and he did not. He
didn't tell his dad his dad thought he was at
school at Oxford the full time. Yes, so that's probably
why he told some whoppers, some grilled flame whoppers about
(08:18):
his id in the first place. And the British had
no idea they had gained a kind of super soldier
Noel off Mic. We were talking about whether this guy
is considered a you know, a British version of Captain America,
or whether he's more like the Punisher.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
But or the terminator of sorts.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
There we go, we kid the not folks. This young man,
through either luck or skill, appeared to be positively unkillable.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
It would seem a combination of both. So let's get
into some conflicts. Some war talk here, Carton weird dewyart
excuse me, served in the Boer War, World War One,
and World War Two. In the process, he got shot
in the face one that's right, in the face. He
lost an eye to left, the old lefty, and he
(09:13):
was also shot through the skull, which is kind of
also in the face, one might argue. In addition to
the hip leg, ankle and ear.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I mean, this is a.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Real ship of thesis kind of guy, right, Like, was
he even still himself? I think the Terminator comparison holds
true here, and the Boer War been one that you
know a lot of wars. I didn't know my name,
but it was apparently a pretty gnarly one.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
It was narsty, as our friends at Dad's garage like
to say, it was just a terrible, terrible situation. A different,
different show could be made about that. And to your point,
Nold Adrian got his balls rocked twice once literally literal.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
It was shot in the stomach, which is always nasty wound,
and it was the Royd we said the hip earlier
and off air we were also talking about, you know,
we're dudes, like how close did the bullet get?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Oh? Gosh, pretty close, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Yeah, he could have easily died by any one of
these injuries, let alone all of them, but.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
He didn't, as we indicated.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
In fact, he was kind of just taken out of
the of the conflict zone and then shipped back to
Mary Old England in order to recover and convalesce.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
And the news that he.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Was in a hospital, in the military hospital with battle
injuries came as quite the surprise to his old dad,
who again was not aware of any of his son's exploits.
And one might argue perhaps a little bit of a
negligent parents if he just assuming that his son was fine,
did even check on him.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, I know, aristocrats a going on. Yeah, you you
wait till your kid turns eighteen. You give them a
firm handshake, you know, and you save.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Him off the boarding school and the right the honor. Dude,
even before college.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
I mean a lot of times he's aristocratic youths would
be out of the home way before that.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
His stepmother did send him to a boarding school exactly,
and growing up in Cairo, uh as as a little
European aristocrat has got to be you're in somewhat of
a bubble, right. So one of the weirdest things here
is that Adrian got this taste of danger and death.
(11:39):
He did almost die, But I would argue tasting danger
like that is similar to encountering hot sauce. Sometimes you
get addicted. He got addicted.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
He was a real heat seeker.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
To quote our boy from from the Dough Boys podcast, exactly, man,
I mean it's it's he had a taste for danger,
and it's you know, he must have had that from
the start because he was set up to live a
cush life.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
He could have gotten some diplomatic posts, you know, or whatever,
and then nepoed in Colonel Curtsy, that's really interesting, you're yeah,
and you're of course referring to the infamous character played
by Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now specifically that not Heart
of Darkness, that specifically in the film, someone who just
(12:27):
had a taste for adventure and needed to get away
from their kind of posh, civilized upbringing.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
And he also became a naturalized British citizen. And when
World War One broke out in November of nineteen fourteen,
he served with a Sawmaliland Samaliland camel core which was real. Yeah,
check out the picture. They are actually riding camels Somaliland.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Right. So this like is this anarrea that would now
be considered Somalia or.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Small land is interesting because it's in uh we use
this word carefully or this phrase carefully. It is a
liminal space right now. So there's Somalia and over at
the coast of the continent there's Somala Land called the
Republic of Smala Land, but it is unrecognized by the
(13:23):
global order. It's right there on the horn of Africa.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, it's also apparently a more stable government than Somalia.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yeah, we know they've certainly had struggles over the years,
so that he was fighting for what's called you point
out in the outline, this is an incredible name, the
Dervish State. I assume this is the the related to
the famed Whirling Dervishes.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, it's it's weird because we have to remember colonialism
still in full swing there. The the Dervish State is
to the European powers, it's like an upstart, upstart terrorist movement.
(14:09):
But of course to the Dervish State, the European powers
are the terrorist. There's this attack on a fort called
Shimber Barris in nineteen fourteen, same year as he said
that World War One breaks out. This is a Dervish stronghold,
and our buddy Adrian gets shot again. This is the
(14:36):
time we were talking about earlier. He gets shot in
the arm, and he gets shot in the face where
he loses his left eye and part of his ear.
He later will get one of his many commendations for this.
He gets the Distinguished Service Order or DSO for this one.
And I think you and I are going to have
a lot of fun playing around with voices, because we're
(15:00):
jumping around in time. In nineteen sixty four, there's a
guy who served alongside Carton to Wyart in Smaller Land,
and he has the weirdest description of our buddy Adria.
This is from Lord is May.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
It's a weird one, Ben, because I swear when I
read this quote it feels like it wants to be
read in some sort of foghorn leghorn like southern accent.
Go for it. I can't. I can't quite picture reading
this in a heavy British accent because of some of
the little turns of phrase. I'm gonna do it, Yeah,
go for it. Let's see. He didn't check his stride,
but I think the bullet stung him up. As his
(15:37):
language was awful. The doctor could do nothing for his eye,
but he had to keep him with us. He must
have been in agony. And how do you even read
that in a British accent? Does it feel right? I
don't know how was.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
He in agony? We'll find out as you continue Lord
Ismay's statement, I'll switch the voice up a little bit.
He says, I honestly believe that he regarded the loss
of an eye is a blessing as it allowed him
to get out of simolaland to Europe, where he thought
the real action was.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Was okay, that's the true Lord is man. I don't know.
Something about stun him up just seems very like Southern.
It's almost totone to me that thank you, you nailed
exactly what I was trying to art.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Are you cross?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I am your huckleberry and you know that to be true. Ben.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
This guy, by the way, though, this fella that we're
talking about today, Carton de Wire, has a bit of
a doc holiday tombstone kind of looks to him as well. Buddy,
you posted an incredible photo of this dude in his
military dress with many of his decorations pins to his
chest and a sort of a widow's.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Peak kind of thinning hairline and an incredible bushy mustache
that's a little brown than his hair, which is kind
of black. And he's got this imperially kind of slim
elf like almost quality to him, with his pointsy ears
and very knife like features and.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
A badass eye patch and a cravat around his neck.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
And he goes back to England again after you know,
losing part of his ear and the entirety of his
left eye Odin style, And of course he got shot
in the arm, but he wasn't worried about that. He
goes to a nursing home in Park Lane and this
becomes his go to recovery place from his many wartime injuries.
(17:38):
He went there so often that eventually the story goes
the staff just started keeping his personal pajamas clean and
ironed and ready because they knew he would be back eventually.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
That's so civilized, though, isn't that, Ben?
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Just the idea that he had, like his personal pajamas
that is kept on hand, it's already pressed for him. Yeah,
it's I don't know the idea I love. I love
a good old fashioned pajama. But side note, Ben, that
you found about the eye. When he first lost it,
he had a glass eye, which you point out quite accurately.
As someone who's never had to wear contacts, I know
(18:16):
they can be very very vexing, irritating, right, like painful
at times?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Right? Can you imagine that taken to the nth.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Degree, like a literal piece of glass that has shoved
in your empty eye sockets? Not to be too crass
about it, but that just sounds really unpleasant.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah, it's yeah, you're absolutely right. For anybody who's ever had,
you know, a a shard of glass or a splinter
of glass in your finger or something like that, imagine
an orb of glass in as you said, your eye socket.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
They don't do that anymore.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
There's probably better technolog materials, right, because I mean, you know,
it would be smooth, but I just can't it would.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I can't imagine that it would.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
It would sit right, and it would be constantly rubbed
because even a smooth piece of glass, there's imperfections on
the surface, and I imagine there could be little chinks
in it kind of that could just absolutely rub you
the utter wrong way.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
So yeah, he had and this is you know, this
is more than a century ago, so he had a
much earlier kind of glass eye technology. And the legend
is that he hated it, like you said, vexing irritating.
So at some point he was in a moving taxi
(19:31):
and he just said, forget this, and he plucked his
glass eye out of his eye socket and threw it
out into the road and just rocked an eye patch.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
It was just sound you like to make. But yeah,
I mean seriously, brother, pull in the eyes Sode.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Oh dude, that just makes me cringe to my deepest core.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yes, sir, I wonder if if Pop don't like that,
Oh man.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
You would have had to dig his finger in around
the sides. And I mean sorry not to be too
graphic about it, but I can't. I mean, you point
out too. Ben, you use the term king moves, which
I think is utterly appropriate.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
But still, as we mentioned earlier, he his thirst for
action and adventure did not diminish with his literal losing
of various pieces of his body.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Right, Yeah, so he by February of nineteen fifteen, just
a year later, not even he's back and he wants
to go to what beat Me here? Max, as some
of our US veterans in the crowd are familiar with.
He wants to be in this ship.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Yeah, and the ship in this case would be the
all famous, All Quiet after Everyone's Dead Western Front.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Oh that was a good book.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
He there's a threat film adaptation of late last year.
I think it's I haven't seen it, but I've heard
it is absolutely heartbreaking.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Movie night Powerful We're gonna have Okay, sure? Why not?
Why not? Not? Exactly ridiculous, but apparently it's quite well.
It's a movie night for us.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
We'll go to your house, is set up the projector
in the backyard.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Oh man, we gotta do it. It's getting to be
that kind of weather. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
So, over the next three years, from nineteen fifteen to
nineteen eighteen, our buddy Adrian gets more wounds. He's at
the Battle of the Song where he gets the bullet
to the skull you were talking about earlier. He gets
also popped in the ankle.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
He gets shot in the hip at the Battle of Passion,
doll and forgive my pronunciation there. And then dude, he
gets shot through the leg at another war. And then
he gets shot through the ear at another conflict. And
this is perhaps the most pivotal moment, Max. This is
(21:46):
what we're talking with you about. Off air. So at
some point his hand, his left hand, gets absolutely souped up. Mangles, yeah,
mangled mangles, and he is yelling at the doctor. You know,
I'm sure he's in great pain.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Cut it off, cut it off, cut it off.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
And the doctor says, no, we can save the hand,
and so Adrian just gives him that cold, one eyed look.
And then this guy pulls off his own fingers.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Twists off wrenches, tearing flesh and bone.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah, this is not Yeah, this is all it's it's
it's not good. Well yeah, squelch. Indeed, I mean this
guy was serious business. He does eventually have.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
To have the entire hand removed.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
And it's his left hand. So now this guy has
one eye, one hand.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Left eye, left hand right.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah, those are god, those are god. If you want to,
if you want to talk to him, come at him from.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
His right I assume, I mean it seemed more common
for people to be righty's uh so, perhaps hopefully he
favored the right hand.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Well, improvised adapt overcome so.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
True, also true, And if anyone could do it, it's
our boy, the wired.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
And he's not finished yet. Like you said earlier, any
one of these injuries could put people in the grave,
or they would have counted their lucky stars and gone
into retirement.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Cut their losses, get out of dodge, you know. And
again the guy had means it's wild to think, you're
just so easy to.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Think of like the army as a refuge for people
that have no other opportunities and no other supporters.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
And I know that that wasn't always been the case.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
There are certainly people that join out of pure patriotism.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
I'm not discounting that at all.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
But this guy, at this point, I mean, he could
have retired and just said, Okay, I did my time,
I've lived my adventure.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
It's time for me to chill a little bit. But
that just was not his way.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
No, he could have had one of those post presidential
careers we talked about last week. Instead, he the First
World War concludes and people aren't calling it World War
one just yet because humans are optimistic. And he spends
what we call the inter war gears in Poland, and
(24:07):
he is now getting more into i would say, diplomacy.
He's trying to engineer peace. But Poland is invaded in
nineteen thirty nine, and like you said, he has to
get out of dodge. He asked to ski daddle from Arsaw.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
As the Nazis made their way advancing upon the city.
He was in a motorcade that was bombarded strafed by
the Luftwaffa, the famous air force of the Nazis, and
two of his party members started thinking like a D
(24:54):
and D crew were killed. The survivors made it to
Romania where Carton de Wired by the way, and you
pointed out off my his full last name is Cartan Dwires. Yeah,
I believe there referred to him as Dwired a couple
of times.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
My apologies. He evaded arrest by using a fake passport
to fly out of the country, so he was also
rocking borderline secret agent vibes. You know what I mean,
Like he was quick on his feet. There we go. Yeah,
it's a paperwork. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
He he is so down to clown. He is part
of a combined Anglo French or British French attempt to
prevent the Nazi powers from taking over a town in Norway, Namsos.
This does not work out, but he gets sent by
the British to Yugoslavia in nineteen forty one and he's
(25:48):
trying to figure out how they can how the British
can help Yugoslavia fight against the invasion on the horizon.
His crashes, however, in Libya at some point he's caught.
He's sent to an Italian prisoner of war camp and
(26:09):
he's held over for like two years. And the weirdest
thing is, as we'll see, part of his freedom deal
because he does get out of pow camp. Part of
his freedom deal hinges on a tailored suit.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
I love this so much.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
He made five escape attempts in utter badass fashion.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Over the next couple of years. He spent seven months
digging a tunnel. At one point he did escape and
evaded capture for eight days. He was sixty two at
this point. Not to mention the eyepatch, the missing hand,
and multiple serious, serious scars from his injuries, he also
spoke no Italian whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
He was scooped up and taken to Rome, where he
was asked to relay a message back to the British
telling them that Italy would like to would respectfully like
to leave the axis. Yeah, and he agreed to do
this on the condition that he was provided a fine
tailored suit, in his words, as good as any available
(27:15):
from the well known legendary tailor shops on the Savill
Row in London Town.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
He also had some less diplomatic words, yes, because when
he so he's in he's sixty two, right, and he's
in this argument about a suit. They're going to set
him free, and they're going to say, also convey this
message that might change the course of the current conflict,
and he says, I'll do it, but not in an
(27:43):
Italian suit. And this is we don't want to offend
any of our fellow Italian ridiculous historians. But this guy,
Adrian said, I think Italian suits make people look like Jiggilow's.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
And you know, also, no shade to any jigs out
there we go. Yeah, I could say Italian, American or
otherwise Rob Schneider.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
The Italians did comply with his wishes and send him
off to Lisbon, and then he made his way to
England in order to deliver the message in due time.
He spent the rest of the war representing Old Winston Churchill,
old Cigar brandy Boy himself as a representative in China.
(28:29):
He was an absolute dignitary at this point. I mean,
it's the highest level of diplomat.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Yeah, and there are a couple of reasons for this.
We could argue, first his aristocratic background. Second, just being honest,
this is very cold to say, but given his visible
war wounds and as many decorations, he is great advertising.
He's great propaganda for the British forces, like, hey, we're
(28:59):
going to send this guy good optics.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Despite missing the yes, Yes.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Fifty percent eyesight, one hundred and fifty percent optics. One
of the coolest pieces of scuttle but about his time
in China is that Mao Zedong, who later goes on
to do a lot of other things.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Is heard of him?
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Yeah, I heard of him. He likes his books read
and he uh, uncle Mao is known for doing these
impromptu ted talks, these propagandistic monologues, and so he stands
up during the dinner, you know, and he's just feeling it,
he's feeling the spirit. He's pitching his idea for the
(29:44):
course of the Chinese nation, and Carton de Ware says, Nah,
this is malarkey, this is balder dash. Why are you
not attacking the Japanese forces right now? And the room
falls silent. You can hear a pin drop ball.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Z uh yeah, and now is it first joins the
silence before erupting into laughter. I mean, do you, ben,
do you think this was out of just like some
form of respect for the audacity that this guy had
to call him out in that way.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I think respect for audacity, And also it was a
it was a very brusque way of saying something that
Mao Zedong probably already agreed with Yeah, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Mm hm.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
So in a way, I don't know, we weren't in
the room, but in a way, it's almost as if
Adrian was weirdly hype manning mao Zog's other geopolitical ambitions.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
That's a good point.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
But also you're not supposed to interrupt that guy. So Adrian,
I would say this Coounts has taken another gunshot because
he got very close to being killed.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Oh sure, he definitely took a shot at the King
and would argue it landed, but in a different kind
of way, you know, conversationally. So Cardin Dewire was promoted then,
after a long and illustrious military career, to the rank.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Of major general. He was the very model of a
modern major general.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
In fact, he was also made such a British title,
I love it so much, a.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Night Commander of the Order of the British Empire in
nineteen forty five.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah. Yeah, and you might expect him to go down
like the ancestors of Lieutenant Dan And I love that
Forrest Gump reference because I recently rewatched the film. But
he didn't die in war time. After all these injuries
added up the toll they took on his body. He retired.
(31:56):
He wrote an autobiography which you can read now. I
don't love the name, but it's called Happy Odyssey, The
Memoirs of Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton de Wyart. And
Winston Churchill wrote the forward for the book. That's yeah, no, no, Biggs,
that's a cos I for sure. And Mawsey Dong wrote
(32:18):
the afterword. Now that's yeah. Mawse Dog is like, hey, also, lmao,
this guy's hilarious.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
This guy.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
So so it comes to pass that Adrian's first wife,
who we haven't really mentioned, she passes away. He marries
another lady who is twenty three years younger than him.
They have a happy marriage by all accounts. He dies
no children though, huh no no, just like the Mountain
(32:47):
Goats song, love.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Both yeah and he is.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
He passes away when he's eighty three years old, which
is a very long life.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Not from injuries sustained in battle, just from good old
old age. Yeah, and he died of old. He died
of the old.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
And it's June fifth, nineteen sixty three, so this guy
has lived up to the sixties. He passes way in
County Cork, Ireland. And this is something I'd love your
opinion on this. I don't quite understand it. We'll have
to do more digging. Oh gosh, poor choice of words.
(33:30):
He is buried by a church near him and his
second wife's home, but he's not in the graveyard. He's
like just on the other side of the graveyard wall.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
You know, friend of the show. I think he listens
to stuff they don't want you to know. Maybe he
listens to ridiculous history every now and again. But Andy
Buck who is He's from County Cork, Ireland, and you'll
remember him as the guitarist musician in a band called
Sky Trumpets.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
He wrote into us about our topic, you know.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
And anyway, he's long been a listener of the show
and I got to spend some time with him when
I was in Berlin a few years ago and stayed
in touch.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Lovely dude.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
But I would love to reach out to him and
maybe get some of these questions answered on the ground,
because he is right there and it's not.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
A very large area. I bet you he's familiar with
this guy's grave.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Awesome, Awesome, I bet you're right. So we've got to
can you reach out to Andy and see I'd be
cool to see a picture. And that is our show
for today.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Again.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
You can read Happy Odyssey for more. I have read it.
It is a rollicking page turner.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
How could it not be right? He seemed like a
cool guy, right, I mean, I don't know, man?
Speaker 1 (34:42):
No, Well, okay, I just considered a hero in the
United Kingdom.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
You think he might have been a pill? I mean,
we don't have We certainly don't have any He didn't
do any war crimes that we know of, at least,
is right, So now we know.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Okay, all right, Ben, You're right. And maybe I'm being a.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Little too rose colored glasses about to do. I just
I am a bit in awe of his bad astery.
But you don't achieve that level of bad assy without
breaking a few eggs. Perhaps, Yeah, yeah, or Lucy and
I and he's shot, oh exactly, and.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
So we lived through five wars.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
You can love him or hate him, but there is
no denying it. This man was darn near unkillable. And
with that we want to thank you for tuning in.
Please join us for some more explorations of aristocracy and
royalty later this week, when we are giving you for
(35:42):
now are for now on royal deaths.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
I can't wait, bend. I just want to end, maybe
with this quote that you found that I think is
so fitting and funny from Happy Odyssey right when he
was asked about all the five wars that he participated in.
His response was very pithy.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
He just said, it's borderline frankly, my dear, I don't
give a damn Frankly, I enjoyed the war.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
I think he said that pretty much every time someone
asked him about a war, like.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
It was jolly good fun, the four.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
War, World War One, World War two, some of his
other tangles. Yeah, it's very fascinating, fascinating person. We also
were always fascinated with the people who make ridiculous history possible,
and that's why Yeah, you and I like to end
with some big, big thank yous, starting with the super producer,
(36:35):
mister Max Williams.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Yes, indeed, thanks to Alex Williams who composed this theme,
Christoph Frasciotis needs, Jeff Coats here in spirit, Jonathan s
trick on the quizter.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yes, and thanks also to our pals Gabe Luzier, Doctor Z,
Jeff Andrea, the crew, the rude dudes over at ridiculous
crime and of course brother Dan Soft and aj Bahamas Jacobs.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Indeed, are you gonna Are you gonna let me slide
with that one?
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Are you gonna ask your brother Dan soft Is?
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Nope, you keep your secret spend. I'm used to it
by now, and frankly I live for it. And thanks
to you been for this delightful and ridiculous research brief,
and you know, just for for being you, being a friend.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Travel down the road and back again.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Shucks, I love a golden girl's reference right back at you. Wait,
which golden girl?
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Are you the old one?
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Estelle Getty?
Speaker 2 (37:28):
That's the one? How about you? You're sort of a
what was it? I want to be a Blanche. I
want to be a Betty White so bad. But you're
a Betty. Yeah, you're a Betty. I might fall into
the blanch you You're not really a blanche. Max is
more of a blanch classic blanche. We'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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