April 7, 2025 • 51 mins
We go back to two of our favourite topics (as we do every 2-4 episodes) and hit boats and WWII, this time as part of John's 3 part connected series. Listen as John takes Aaron through the of Operation Postmaster, a daring and risky raid that many in the British Armed Forces thought could trigger Spain joining the Nazi's in WWII. How did this raid lead to a hollywood movie? Find out on this week's Cheeky Tales. Find the video version on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@CheekyTalesPod
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In my last episode,we learned about the scourge
of the German U-boatsduring World War II.
This episode we learn about
one of the counteracts to the U-boat
that was the inspiration behind
a Hollywood moviestarring Henry Cavill.
Welcome to Cheeky Tales.
And this is the storyof Operation Postmaster.
(00:30):
But what were they posting?
Espionage and sabotage.
I don't think you do thatthrough the post.
Yeah. Probably not. Yeah.
I love the waythat. Well, named.
Unless you're sending outanthrax.
That's a callback to 1998.
Was that a 98 thing?
I think that. Happened even,like two.
Thousand and two.
(00:51):
Yeah, I think it was a postlike it happened again.
Post 911. Yeah. Never forget.
Hey boy.
Hey what's what's going on.
How's married life.Yeah. Still the same. Yeah.
Been three.
Months. Yeah.
We had a look at some ofour photos again the other day.
And, that was fun.
There's like some really niceones in there of,
(01:12):
there's one thing. The bird.
Let's just.
Yeah. They're pretty fun.
Oh, we're.
Showing it off last night
because we're talking about,like, flipping the bird.
I'm like, hey,I booked my friend's wedding.
This is just.
There's one in particular.
It was one of the ones.
I think it's one of the oneswith just the groom's men.
Yeah.
It's like me and you guys,and you're, like, cuddling me.
You got, like, a hand in thejacket, like it's so sweet.
(01:35):
You know, like,I don't remember that at all.
You're like, eyes closed, like,
oh. I'll put it up in the show.
I thinkI think, the photographer
keep looking to say, like theI think, the instruction
from the photographer was like,oh, I love him.
So that's when I was like,yeah, yeah, crazy.
There was also one.
I can't remember which one.
(01:55):
It was where he was like,just attack him from behind.
Yeah. He just put hiswhole fist in my hand. Was.
I didnot know that happened, JT.
I was eitherhis name or his face.
You just, like,put it in your body.
Rather than somethingelse. Whoa.
No, I did look good. That.
Gross.
(02:16):
It's.
I don't know where to gofrom there.
Yeah.
Anyway, that's been Gigi, too.
Yeah.
That's, We'll see you next week.
That's right.
Yeah.
So, Yeah, this is parttwo of my three part trilogy.
Yeah.
Like I said, we my episode,
(02:37):
so two episodes agowas about the U-boats.
And this is kind of a follow onto that, but not directly, but
kind of a spiritual successor.
Yeah, kinda.
So let's begin.
Kick it off.
We're going to.
Begin that stamp and send it.
Yes. We're going to beginwith the formation of the CBI
(02:58):
Special Operations Executive.
As withmost government departments,
there was lots of movementof people between sections
and different divisionsmoving and forming.
But the abridged version is.
In June 1940, newly appointedPrime Minister Winston Churchill
merged three existingsecret departments section
D of the Secret IntelligenceService, also known as MI6
(03:19):
Department,each from the Foreign Office,
and military intelligenceresearch from the War Office.
Quick question on WinstonChurchill.
Picture him in your head.
Do you wear a hat? Yes.
Yeah.
That man probablythe most famous hat wearer.
Name another person
with a hat more associatedwith their personality.
Fred Durst but like Fred DurstAbraham Lincoln.
(03:40):
True. There you go.
There's the holy trinity of hatwears.
Abe Lincoln,Winston Churchill, Fred Durst.
Fred Durstfor making the biscuit.
Biscuit. Yeah. Okay, pictureFred Durst.
What's he wearing? That's.
I mean, we've got two worldleaders.
Limp Bizkit,spirit of those days.
(04:00):
You're talking about backwardscap, right?
Yeah, the red cap.
Yeah. Okay,
pictureFred Durst. Wearing the red.
I probably wouldn'tput him in that tree over.
I mean, in level of personalityassociated with hat.
He's on par with Abe Lincoln.
Okay.
Two namesyou can say in the same breath.
Okay.
I would probably think of.
(04:22):
Not the red baseball cap.
I'll probably go with
maybe an Australian famous
for wearing an Akubraor something like that.
Maybe I,
Clive Churchill.
No, not Clive Churchill.
Bob. Katter. Bob. Katter. Clive.
Rick. Clive church.
Churchill's a famous footballplayer.
Bob. Katter.
I was thinking of known madman.
What was I thinking of?
(04:42):
I've worn bobcat as cat hat.I'm. Yeah, yeah.
I'm into the, the coffee clubthat I worked at.
Oh, I was like,gosh, that's Bob Katter.
And they were like, oh, I like.
All right,let me explain. Who Bob Katter.
Yeah. Okay.
You uncultured. Swine.And then next minute.
Oh well, next minute they'relike, Aaron, come out here.
And they had himlike at the counter
because they said thatI knew him.
And he's.
Like bolts got a photo and.
He put the goodthe hat on my head.
(05:03):
Swimming bald tiny head. Aaron.
It's like a pinhead thing flopping about, but,
Yeah, thatwas an interesting afternoon.
And I don't have that photoarchive. Yeah.
So I can't prove myself.
But it did happen.
This has been hat chat.I've worn bobcat as hat.
We're goingto have a hot chat from about.
What do you mean?
Oh, just supplemental podcast.Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
(05:23):
Top ten hats.
Yeah, we've done three.
Yeah, for.
Yeah.
Worst hat.
That little like the onethat like old British man wear.
Like a bowler.
Isn't that what Churchill was.
A bowl is like the round onewith the like gutters.
Yeah.
Oh you mean likethe little flat.
Yeah. Flat cap. Or golf?
(05:44):
The golf hot topic.
Yeah,I hate them. The other one.
Anyway, back to the story.
Oh you mentioned hats.
Homogeneity.
I mentioned hatsin their last episode.
Like the worldrecord for the tallest hat.
Yeah. Yeah.
Did you see when they didthe wide brim.
Yeah. That was very. The.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah.
(06:05):
Another iconic hat.
The one in scream.
One on screen.
Yeah.
So there's a billion screamwhere the
I don't knowif she's the sheriff
or she's just likeone of the police officers.
Not scream scary movie.
Every time they show heron screen, her hat just keeps
getting bigger.
Like, at the end, it's huge.
(06:26):
Yeah, right.
So. Yeah.
Those three
departments were merged.
Thus the city was bornwith the direction
from Churchillto set Europe ablaze.
Okay.
I was like, what he toldthe first director of that.
Yeah. Interestseems a bit extreme.
(06:47):
Yeah.
Well,this was at the kind of point
where things weren't goingwell for England.
Well the Britain's in WorldWar two.
They were kind of losingat that point.
So I interesting side note here.
One other department formthat was the for the purpose
of creating weaponsfor irregular warfare.
Ministry of defense
(07:08):
one pretty much militaryresearch and development.
Well it's called MD one timemilitary defense. One.
It was not formally integratedinto the sorry
and remained independent,but worked closely with the SRB
and was informally knownas Churchill's Toy Shop.
Nice.I thought, that's pretty cool.
Cool name.
So he was heavily involved in.
(07:29):
Yeah. Sorry.
And just like this kind of
ungentlemanly warfare.
Is the name of the movieand also what it was called.
Good name.
The. So British. Yeah.
Oh there's a lot of Britishnames in here.
Yeah.
The director of the survey
is usually just referredto by the initials KD
(07:52):
and the like desc. Yes.
And the first was sirFrank Nelson.
He was under political.
He was under the politicalleadership of Hugh Dalton.
He was Ministerof Economic Warfare at the time.
So they kind ofhad like a political head
and like a military head. Yeah.
Interestingly,Dalton was removed
from the positionin February of 1942.
Speculation as to
(08:13):
why was because he was allegedlyusing
Sony's phonetapping capabilities to listen
to conversationsof fellow labor ministers.
Watergate.
And oh, he was viewed as twocommunal, mystically inclined.
He was a filthy read.
Down with communism. Yes.
(08:33):
He was also very interested injust like his kind of warfare
or like stirringunrest was like causing
labor strikes and riotsand all that kind of stuff. So
it was like very different fromwhat was
previouslyused by him for warfare.
The aim of the sorry column.
(08:55):
Thank you for that.
Robot vacuum cleaner.
It's about to get a bit noisya bit. Or.
Or is that stuck sayingit's kind of stop?
Yeah, but it's sort oflike that. There's like, oh.
Yeah,the vacuum is just going to.
It's going to startgoing in a second.
Come on please I can't wait.
Unless it just forgetswhere it is.
Oh no. It's likestuck on the power cable is it.
Oh there goes. There we go.
I'll sort that out and
(09:17):
stop.
I'm starting to charge.
That's lovely.
That's.
That's what power.
Oh, that's.
I hope you were in my short.
(09:40):
All right, so after thatbrief vacuum interlude.
Yeah.
The aim of the.
Sorry, as with its leadershipchange throughout the war,
but they pretty much revolvedaround one central idea sabotage
and subversion of the axiswar machine.
Sabotage.
Sabotage. Sabotage.
Why do you decide?
Like,
race favorite actor.
(10:01):
Adam Sandler?
Yeah. Well,I don't think it's him.
I think it's a cartoon.Or I'm sold in that.
I don't know. Sabotage.
I just the how he talks of.
Have you seen that bit?
Was, the talking about TimothyShani.
Yeah.
And she's like,just Timothy Sharratt.
You say his namelike Adam Sandler would.
Sharmila American like.
(10:24):
Yeah.
You can see it there.
How can I be honest? Like it?
I don't get the hypearound Shalini.
Neither do really boring.
Yeah, there'snothing exciting about him.
I mean, I can imagine.
Yeah, but, like.
You haven't seen you, have you?
No, of course I haven't.What do you mean?
I've never seen any movie.Ever. No, never.
Nothing wrong.
(10:45):
So, yeah.
Like idea of sabotageand subversion
of the axis war machinethrough indirect means.
Sometimes I write about this,
or I did engagein directly military actions
with the example of OperationHarling, which saw the cutting
of supply lines for accesstroops fighting in North Africa.
Right.
So sometimes I did
just directly engagein like front to front battle.
(11:08):
The North Africa bit
like everyone forgets that WorldWar two had a huge African.
Beat. North Africa was massive.
Yeah. It was. Yeah.
We always the movies
and all that always centeredaround, like, Europe.
Yeah. Like France and Germany.
The European campaignand the Pacific campaign.
But North Africawas just as bad, if not worse.
Probably a lot oftank combat in North Africa.
(11:30):
Well yougot lots of open ground.
Yeah.
Other high profile operationssuch as Operation Anthropoid saw
the assassination of ReinhardHeydrich on Rick in Prague.
Okay.
This was.
Prague,famously the capital. Of.
Going to say Denmark.
But that's Copenhagen.
(11:51):
No, Belgium? No.
No. Don'thave a phone or anything.
I've got my computer.
How do I not knowwhat Prague is?
The capital.
Sean will be screaming at this.
Capital of the Czech Republic.
I would not,I didn't guess that.
Well, cool. Yeah.
(12:11):
So, yeah, he was a high rankingNazi.
Was he, like,one of the main guys
that instituted the,Jewish prison camps?
I don't know.
I think so.
I'm sorry.
Heinrich Reinhardt. Yes.
Reinhard Heydrich.
Oh, it's not a namethat jumps to mind.
This is your episode.Oh I. Know.
(12:32):
I was expecting Shawneeto follow up on stuff.
All ranking German SS and policeofficer during the Nazi
era and principal architectof the Holocaust.
Yeah.
I was wrong.So, Principal dickhead.
Goody
not really deserves it.
This was the.
So hatredbetween the population of access
controlled countrieswith their occupiers.
(12:54):
This would then force the accessto expand to expend manpower
and resources on maintaining
the controlof their subjugated populations.
So, yeah, make them worried
about internal affairsrather than external.
I can spend resourceson internal ones
to weaken the external. Yeah.
Even though they were smallersuccessful
(13:14):
missions in their service life.
Operation PostMaster is considered
the first major successfulmission.
And was used as a moral baselineon how other missions
should be conductedin precision and boldness.
In 1941, British Admiralty
started receiving reportsthat German right like.
So we're on to the operationhere.
They started receiving reportsthat German submarines,
(13:36):
the U-boats, were usingthe rivers in Vichy French
parts of Africaas a vice Vichy, Vichy, Vichy.
Vichy France was the occupied,
rulership.
Okay.
The ones that were like,we're French, we love the Nazis.
Like, you know, French.
So the Vichy French
parts of Africaas a base for refueling,
(13:59):
a unit was selected and formedto investigate these reports.
The small scale writing force,or the Seraph,
also knownas the number 62 commandos.
This unit consisted of a groupof 55 Commando trained
personnel and was led by MajorGas Mark Phillips.
Right.
The unit splitand headed for Freetown, Sierra
(14:20):
Leone, arriving on September20th, 1941.
So what was. Freetown?
The name of the place? Yep.
Look. Right. Name.
So yeah, this is the townof Freetown in Sierra Leone.
They were pretty muchwhere like go
and seewhere these U-boats are going.
Yeah.
To be refueledbecause these are the U-boats,
as we discussedin the last episode
(14:41):
that were terrorizingthe Atlantic Ocean, hitting,
supply convoys. Yeah.
Merchant ships.So go check the ships.
Where are they?
And they were a group like the.
So they split into two groups.
There was a small, groupwith Gus.
Much groups, like five of them.
And like this
(15:02):
massive yacht.
And then the rest of the forcegot there
a couple of days early,and they agreed to meet up.
We'll rendezvous in Freetown.
When Devil's.
They sailed the many riversand the deltas of the region
searching for the submarinebase.
Unfortunately,they failed to find the base
or any evidence of submarineactivity in the area
(15:23):
or remained in the areaafter stopping the search
and became awareof three vessels in the quiet
port of Santa Isabelon the Spanish island
of Fernando Po,which itself was about 30km.
A lot of us kilometers.
A kilometer
was 30kmoff the coast of Africa.
Right.So this tiny little island,
(15:44):
how, Spanish controlled Espana.
This is going to be tricky.
Although Spainwas officially neutral
in the war,its government under Francisco
Franco was sympatheticto the axis cause.
Ideal situationfor the newly formed unit.
Hi there. I'd like.
Be quiet.
Subterfuge,you little sneaky guys. Yeah.
(16:06):
Do you little get into a scubasuit and swim up inside?
The plan was to seizethe three vessels
without harming civilians,
without alertingSpanish authorities,
and without causinga diplomatic scandal
that could push Spaincloser to the access camp.
Simple, right?
Sounds easy. Thanks.
Yeah. Do it this afternoon.Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, we'll see what you sayafter you find out what happens.
(16:27):
You might change. Change?
I don't think I'm being serious.
I think I'm understandingthat's a difficult task.
Like I'm saying,we'll see what happens.
The three open the three vesselsof concerned to the British
were the Italian yacht,the Joxer, the Costa,
an 8500 ton luxuries and fast.
A vesselcapable of long range travel.
(16:50):
Right. So a boat? Yeah.
A large German tugboat, Lacombe.
And another Germandiesel powered barge to Bondi.
Right.
Just as a quick, quick insightinto my life at the moment,
we just moved office.
Must be nice becausethe new one has river views.
I'm sitting there.
Oh. Like I got into work.
(17:10):
Watching the city cats. Yeah.
So fun watching them come past.
I see the, the blue onescompost every so often.
But I looked out the windowwhen I got into work one morning
and I was like,
that is the most storybooktugboat I've ever seen.
Oh, really?
It was like, picturea tugboat in a cartoon.
Yeah, it was that. Yeah.
Like black with, like, tiesaround the outside and, like,
(17:32):
the right tugboat shape.It was really. Cute.
I think you're gonna findmost boats look like that.
Nah, it was just very storybook,you know?
You know what?
I have two hoursaround the outside.
So I can bump into stuff.
And push it. Yeah,that's the job.
Well, no more tug.
It's in the name, boy.
Tug. Idon't know where you're going.
(17:52):
No, I think tugis the name of in South Park.
There's an episodewhere they've got Russell.
Russell Crowe is doinglike a travel show.
It's calledFighting Around the World.
And he's got a tugboat.
And I think it's called Tiger.
Tug of the tug.
That eventually somebody,like, shoots tug Guy
and he goes on a rampage,like fighting people.
(18:13):
Anyway, it's very random.
The intelligence report
suggested that these shipswere relating information
to the German U-boats or,and or resupplying them
for their operationsin the Atlantic.
There was a declared manifestfor the Duchess's cargo.
And it is as follows.
3 millionpounds of wool. Of wool.
(18:33):
Oh yeah.
316,610pounds of hides and skin.
Okay. So leather.
1.3 million pounds of tanningmaterials.
4 million pounds of copra.
Of what?
Copra. What's that?
I think it's a chemical powder.
(18:54):
Copra is the dried whiteflesh of the coconut from which
coconut oil is extracted.
Oh, so it's coconut. Yep. Okay.
Coconut powder? Yeah. Right.
Let's call it,
544,660 pounds of crudeasbestos.
Pharma. Nice.
Yum, yum.
And over 1.1 million ingots
(19:16):
of electric.
Electro matic copper.
Okay. That's a lot of stuff.
The first page of the manifest
wasn'tpresented to port authorities,
and the captainrefused to give any details.
So it was speculated that
it was also carryingarms and ammunition.
There was some back and forthfrom British higher ups
if the mission should go aheador not,
because of the potentialSpanish backlash
(19:37):
and eventually the final.Go ahead.
This was like
September up to Januaryof just back and forth of yeah,
we should do it.We shouldn't do it.
It's going to causetoo much issues,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
So there's all this stuffjust on the boat the whole time.
Like, how do they.
Well, I thinkfrom where it came from
to coming to the,
(20:01):
the port.
Yeah.
Of Saint Isabellasaying Isabella,
I think that was likeone of the trips
I, I don't obviously with theI think it might only be
one tripwithin that three months.
I don't think it's going backand forth constantly.
Yeah.
So yeah.
So final go ahead would be given
from the foreign Officeon January 6th, 1942,
(20:21):
even though there were stillhigh ranking
members of the British militarywho opposed the production.
So our little chefgot there in September,
and now it's January,
three months laterand they're like, yep,
you can go aheadwith taking these things.
So they're just. Hanging outfor like four months.
Yeah.
He's still gathering informationto find out
what they're actuallydoing and stuff like that.
(20:55):
Richard
Lippert, who was an Sebi agent,had taken up post on the island
under the guisehe was working as well.
He was workingfor a shipping company
with offices in the port town.
During his tenure there,he gained the information
that the crew of the Dutch S.A.
were in the habit of acceptinginvites to parties ashore,
as they had their own partyon board the Dutch
(21:16):
assault on January 6th,at which Lippert had attended,
and Mark discoveredshift crew shifts and.
Yeah, and stuff like that.
Wearing a suit, looking cool,looking cool. The guy.
Martini's.
Yeah, the governor or FernandoPao, captain Victor Sanchez.
Diaz.
He was also pro-Naziwith Israeli agents
(21:37):
based on the islands, withthe help of a British chaplain,
managed to procure compromisingphotos of Sanchez Diaz
with his mistress. Nice.
They use these to force him tolessen security on the island.
So I even I might.
We got photos of you. And you.Yeah. A little side piece.
How about you cut downon some of those? Security?
Yeah. Let's see.
Even though the Germans
(21:58):
were kind of using it as a bitof a market resupply base,
the majority of the securitywas still from the Spanish.
And so, yeah,like you just said, they used.
Hey, we've we're goingto tell you what I thought.
You need to get ridof some of these.
Security. Good advice.
If you're running securityat a high C high, high
importance military base,maybe you don't have a.
Mistress or just.
(22:19):
Not at all.
Well, onedon't have a mistress at all.
Well, yeah,I mean. In general. But like.
Also ifyou're using a military base
and using some other nations,security force.
Don't do that.
Have your own security force.Don't be. Lazy.
Well I think that might have
caused a bit of a problembeing that
like I said, Spain was neutral.
(22:40):
I mean. If they had likea Germany with Germany.
Yeah, I can say that.
Yeah. Well,you get what you get.
On the night of the plane,right?
January 14th,
Lippert had organizedthe captain and officers
from all three ships
to be invited to a dinner partyhosted by the local.
Sorry.
Blini. Oh. Zarrella. Right.
I really thoughtyou're going to say albinos.
(23:01):
Oh, I was trying not to, andit kept on wanting to come out.
The guy from the The Da VinciCode was having a party.
At 11:30 p.m..
Two tug boatswhich are departing from Lagos.
Two tigers? Yep. Yep.
The Vulcan with March Phillipsand his second in command,
Jeffrey Appleyard.
And the Newton
entered the harborand put their plan into action.
(23:24):
The Vulcan headed to the Dutch
and the Newtonto both the Lincoln Combat
and the Peabodyas they were anchored together.
So the Dutch archer was offparts of the tugboat
Barger, anchored togetherclose by, but not together.
Silently and quicklythe commandos boarded the three
vessels, quickly overpoweringthe skeleton crews left on board
(23:45):
as the rest were getting smashedat the dinner party,
explosives were,
Charges were placedon the ship's anchors
and docking chains,and when detonated,
all three vesselswere towed out to sea.
This was all done without a shot
being firedand took about 30 minutes.
Wow. That's very quick.
Very quick.
Yeah. Very easy.
As we were,I was kind of building up to.
(24:05):
This is going to be difficult.
Yeah.
And then it got onand they're like, hey,
do you want to get shot?
No. Yeah. Okay.
Pretty much. I'm in the harbor.
I think I took him prisoners.
I mean, that makes sense.
Yeah.
Took them prisonersexplosives from the times.
So that they'd
take the boats outand then blow them up.
Or do they blow them offand drag them out?
No, they blew up the chains.Oh, right.
So to release them from theanchors in the docking chains
(24:27):
and then,then tied them out to say, yeah.
Zarrella
the guy who organizedthe party was an excellent host
of the partyand a master of detail.
He kept the alcohol flowing
and had also arrangedthe seating plans
so the honored guestshad a full view of the party
with their backs to the window,facing away from the harbor.
Nice. Somebody like, hey,you should probably turn around.
(24:48):
He's like. No.
Yeah. He was.The wine is in front of me.
Hey, thisthis fellow was anti Nazi.
He was not happy withthe Germans and stuff like that.
So he was happy to helpthat. Sorry.
Even the drunkest of Germansailors
could not hear the explosionsof the anchors being released.
Can you imagine?
Just imagine for a second.
(25:09):
You like having a really greattime.
You're like,oh man, what a great dinner.
I'm going to thank the host.Thanks, man.
All right,let's go back to the harbor.
Something's missing here. Wow.
Funny enough you say that.
However, they mistook theexplosions, for an air raid.
And sothey made the anti-aircraft
guns and fought themsporadically in the air.
(25:30):
Just shoot anywhere. Yeah.
Eventually, realizing there wasno threat from the air.
They met.
They made their way downto the docks
to findthe vessels had vanished.
Oh, allegedly,
the shock of the inebriatedsoldiers made such a spectacle
that the localsthat had gathered
started to burst out laughter.
There are boats,so you're not too far off.
I parked it right here.
Dude, where is my boat?
(25:52):
I what does mine say?
Whatever. Look, this might say.
Well, no, no, no,but what does mine say?
Oh, Hitleris not going to be happy.
Did we just come up with a skitthat we need to film?
Thanks.
I'm going to cut this bitfrom the show.
Where is my vessel?
(26:13):
I didn't say, comrade.That was art.
What did the Germans say?
Heil Hitler!
That's a bad man.
I don't know what elsethey. Say, but they say I.
Do not. Cut that outand turn it into anything.
No, they say, comrade.
No, no, I know the Russian side,but counterpart.
Where is my.
Don't. I was a Nazi.
That's my boat.
(26:33):
Hmhmm. This is dusk boat.
Where is the boat?
Where is the boat?
What is Das Boot?
Where is my boot?
Oh, man.
But yeah.
So apparently the the localsknew what was going on.
They knew with explosionswhen they went randomly
looking up in the air, foreign.And they were.
Probably down the harbor
having a nice harboursidefish and chips.
But yeah, probably wouldn'tlaugh at Nazis occupied more
(26:56):
in my country than if I was alike a no no.
But then,like, they're not anti-Nazi.
Like the Spanish were neutral.
So they can laugh at everyone.
Yeah. True story.
Yeah. Anyway, so out to sea.
So, like I said, they towedthese boats out to sea.
January 15th.
The tugboatsand the captured vessels
(27:17):
were interceptedby the HMS Violet.
Yeah.
That was a British shipthat had been dispatched
to the area to meet upwith the group of vessels
to provide
Britain with the cover storythat the Italian
and German vesselswere intercepted
while heading out on their ownaccord.
Good.
So they already put thatin the plan that this warship
would meet them?
Yeah.
(27:38):
And I have the story like,
we captured these vessels
as they were heading outfor resupply or whatever.
Like that. Yeah.
Naturally, the Spanishgovernment was furious,
but there was really no
diplomatic consequences,
as there was really no evidencethat the British was involved.
The Brits downplayedthe incident, claiming
it was the three Frenchopposite operatives
that carried out the raid.
(27:58):
Germany would claimthat the British destroyer
had entered the harbor,deployed depth charges
to blow up the anchorchains and shot all the crews.
All the vessels crews
who did that, the German Germanywould put out the German.
The Germanswould put out a story
that the a British destroyerhad come in.
And. Did, that
the Brits would also deny this,
stating that no Britishor Allied
(28:19):
vessels were in the areaat the time,
which technically wasn't a lie.
I love a good not lie.
Because the the tugboatsthat our commandos were on,
they came from like us.
So they're like not British.
Exactly. Not lying.
I would state in a lightof broadcast that due to.
Due to the German intelligence.
(28:39):
Oh, sorry.
Due to the German allegations,a British reconnaissance patrol
was sent to the area and spotteda large unidentified vessel.
And British naval vesselswere in work to investigate.
So kind of playing
mind games to overallpretty well played by the Brits.
Yeah.
I actually findthis really fascinating
because we all knowof the big battles,
you know, like the landingNormandy,
(29:00):
the, Operation Mock Guardand all that kind of stuff.
Yeah.
Main power battalions stormingbeaches and towns.
Classic warfare. Yeah. Classic.
It is. It's classic. Warfare.
Judi one. Yeah.
But we don't often hearthe modern games
being played via communications,like on the of.
I mean, I supposedice less interesting, isn't it?
I find it interesting to.
(29:21):
Really make a movieout of out of ending fake news.
Where they have
what?
It's the League of the not like.
Yeah, but like,that's still an action movie.
No I know.
You can't really make a movieabout.
Getting. Fake news. Yeah.
It is.It was fake news like that.
I find it really well donethat I had the British destroyer
there ready to pick himup. Had the cover story.
(29:43):
And they're like oh you Primeit was us.
We haven'tgot to investigate this.
Oh there's anotherunidentified vessel there.
We're sending more boatsto investigate. Yeah.
So smart.
Smart very smart.
It's almostlike they're good at this.
This was like
kind of the first timethat they had done it.
It was likethey developed this kind of
(30:04):
espionage I supposeas I stated in the intro.
This operationwas the inspiration
for the movie Ministryof Ungentlemanly Warfare,
which is also what the Siri wassometimes referred to as.
Good name.
As I said before.
The movie is directed by GuyRitchie
and it's heavily adapted versionof what happens in the movie.
There's lots of gunfightsand killing,
(30:24):
not so much the quiet,quick operation that took place.
Yeah.
I mean,
getting on a boatand just going, hey,
yeah, you're a prisoner now.
And then, you know, back,right back.
There was lots of bloodshedand shooting and explosions
and stuff. Yeah. America.
England.
Well, yeah.
But, like, I'm sure the movie isvery American themed.
Probably.
(30:46):
So let's have a quicklook at some of the actors
and characters in the movie.
And they're real lifecounterparts.
So that's,that was their operation.
It was went off without a hitch.
That's why it's very successful.
Modeled is like a missionof precision.
Great success.
Yeah. Yeah.
Super super successful.
No casualtieson the Allied side.
(31:07):
No casualties on the
access side either.
Just three stolen ships.
And it's I mean the ships died.
Why did they not.Just take. Them.
They took them back to Lagos
and they repurposed themand they became battleships.
That must be so confusing.
When you see one of them.
And it'snow like a different country.
Because I wouldassume that they look German.
(31:28):
There was a tugboat.
Look. German.Does it have like a little SS.
No. The boats they stole.
One of them was a tugboat.
They stole a tugboat. Yes. Why?
Because it was probablyone of the.
It was.
Like a storybook, but.
It was probably taggingthe submarines
in the dock and stuff like that.Yeah. Wrong.
Oh, well.
So there was a German
barge and a German tugboatand the Italian luxury vessel,
(31:50):
which was like a cargo vessel,pretty much. Yeah.
Right.
I guess I wouldn't reallylook German.
I think a little SS hadlittle swastika.
Little, little. Spider.Every way.
That. Germans paint over that.
I don't know,I just like you see it.
As the is the talk aboutgot a little black mustache
and but it's, Permanently out.
(32:13):
It's got like a little,
little right armpoking, pointing upwards.
How are you going to do that?
I'm not going to say
I'm going to demonstratethat to you on the model.
I'm not going to do that.
I don't get clipped, especiallywhen I said I'll hit the roof.
What's what are you going to besure that you just brought?
That was a BrewDog lager.
Can you show me where the logois? BrewDog logo.
(32:33):
What's over there?
Where's where'sBrewDog situated?
I don't feel the rocket.
I'm not on that.
Audio listeners,if you want to jump.
On L says no to using Nazisignals.
Imagery.
Yeah.
Oh, dear listeners,if you want to quickly jump
across to the YouTube video,you'll
(32:54):
see metry and said, I heard up there.
That's a bit of a
visual gag, but, Yeah,
I was so tempted to do itfor the laugh, but then.
That.
You'd never get that offthe today fuck.
20 years time and Ireland'srunning for state office.
It comes as video.
I've just.
And I will be runningfor state office
(33:15):
and political ambitionsover here.
The honorable MP Aaron.
I'm not going to give youthe last nine.
It's even thoughit's in the title.
Of the title of the show.
I mean, it's every episodehas it at the bottom.
So Jeffrey Appleyard,
portrayed by Alex
Pettyfer.
(33:35):
I wouldn't expect,you know, the actor.
I didn't know that actor
is only really two actorsin this that are really not.
Anyway. He was,
he was alreadya distinguished soldier
before volunteeringfor the commandos in 1940.
He was awarded
the Military Crossfor his gallant
and distinguished servicesin the field,
for his partin rescuing two Upper
two operativesfrom Operation Savannah,
(33:59):
from the coast of France.
He then joined the teamfor Operation Post Master,
and afterwards was awardeda bar for his Military Cross.
So you can't get the MilitaryCross again?
You get a little bar andyou get a little powerful. Yep.
Like, technically,he was awarded it twice,
but you don't get the middleclass.
He continuedbeing involved in the SRF right
(34:19):
along the French coast,but an injury prevented him
from taking a part in OperationAqua attempt,
which was a disastrous operationfor the ten man squad
after half being killed andthe other half being captured.
That's not a good,Not a good follow up. No.
He was also a part of OperationBasil, which landed.
(34:40):
Assault.
Basil. Assault.
Tomato. Tomato.
Potato. Potato.
Which landed at Sark.
Capturing five Germans.
When one triedyelling a warning, he was shot
well in the rest of the Germanforces there.
On retrieving
three more prisonerstried escaping,
leading them to be shotand killed as well.
This action enraged Hitlerso much it caused him
(35:01):
to issue the infamous he'sa German word.
Let me have a crack
commando befell.
That didn't sound that hot.
It didn't, but it looks bad.
Which in English isthe Commando Order, which stated
that all captured commandos wereto be shot without exception.
Jews.
So these, like the chef,these commandos were like,
(35:24):
almost like guerilla style.
Just hit and running like.
Yeah, positionedalong the coast.
We made Hitler quite angry.
Yeah, I can imagine.
And he's such a chill guy.
You wouldn't expect it.
In the movie.
The squad led by March Phillipson the way to Fernando
Po, had to stop and rescue
(35:45):
Appleyard from a Germanoutpost on an island,
killing everyoneand blowing up a radio building.
So it was one of the
bloodiest scenes in the movie.
Yeah. This isn't true.
I tell you,Apple, God was never captured.
They didn't need rescuing.
But the
movie, makers did say that this
(36:07):
sequence is somewhatbased on a real story, right?
Where 4 or 5 soldiers arrived
and the Nazis who were stationedthere, some who were sharing,
all gave up immediately,with one allegedly fighting.
Yeah.
If someone comes in whileI'm having a shower with a gun,
I'm pretty much surrendering.Yeah.
Vulnerable. Position.
So, yeah, there was like.
It was like five soldiers
(36:27):
attack this German outpost,and then they all just went.
We gave up
and could I have a towel?
Possibly to pass the towel
covered by schnitzel?
Do you have a tattoothat says wonderful
on the back of you Vuh.
What does one say?
Well.
(36:49):
Not now.
Fritz.
Germany.
Appleyardwas then part of forming
the inner circle for the newsecond Special Air Service,
ISIS.
And it was.
It's twoI see, during July 1943,
the Allied invasion of Sicily,
(37:11):
Appleyard supervisedthe airdrop of SAS paratroopers.
And on the return flight overthe Mediterranean,
Appleyard plane disappeared
and he was declaredmissing, presumed dead. Oh,
so yeah, this CRF,
and these 55Commando is pretty much done
with a prelude to what we knownow, today is the SAS.
And therefore SAS Australia,our favorite TV show.
(37:35):
I thought Married at First Sightwas your favorite TV show.
It changesdepending on what's funny and.
Dependingon which is actually on.
I haven'twatched MAFs in a few years now.
Maybe there was that one seasonI got really into
and then never again.
Kind of like The Bachelor.I watched the one with omnibus.
I watched the trashy shows.
Honestly. Don't even start.
Don't even start.
(37:55):
I just all those romantic.
Oh, watchone season then give up.
Okay.
One season of The Bachelor andit was the Honey Badger season.
You just watch for Honey Badgerdidn't you.
Yeah. To be honestthat was 90% of it. Yeah.
And then the end.He didn't even choose anyone.
He just said no to all of themand let.
No. What a waste of time.
He just said to everyone.
(38:18):
He really did good.
Yeah.
It was just a season of himrunning around
with the shirt offand then going.
Yeah, actually, I thinkI might go back to dinner.
Douche dose.
And is Larsen Larsen
and is Larsenknown as the Viking commander.
Played by Rachel Akhtar.
I want Richardson in the movie.
(38:40):
Yep. Big big dude.
Do you still have no ideawho that is.
I don't know who that isactually.
He was in Lazer Team.
He was he was in laser team.
Oh yeah we did that.
Did you. Did you back that?
What do you remember?
I did.
But we did that big, like,
Rooster Teeth is gone thingin one of our episodes
a while back there,which dates back kind of.
(39:03):
Yeah.
Yeah, it got bought byone of the founders.
We left these beforeit was shut down.
Anyway, in the movie.
He's called the Danish Hammer
and usesa bow and arrow in the right.
Not quite true.
Danish. Hammer. Hammer.
Hammer, hammer.
That's not funny.
The Danish hammer.
(39:24):
Because he's a big boy.
Yeah.
He was he was,he was called the Viking
and he was proficient
with a bow and arrowand petitioned the War Office
to allow Baron Hoursto be used in combat.
Yeah. Nice. They rejectedrejected his request.
Yeah. Because, youknow, it's better that a gun.
However,he did use them in training
and was quite proficientwith bow. With the bow.
Reportedly,when shooting a stag,
(39:45):
the arrow would pass through
the deer entirelysticking into a tree beyond.
Right.
So that's just because he's
big. Strong boy. Strong boy.
Which they incorporatedthis detail in the movie
as the characterdoes it to a few Germans.
Oh yeah. Nice.This is how he got
his other nicknamethe Robin Hood Commando.
(40:06):
He was born inCopenhagen, Denmark.
And when that and when the Nazisoccupied Denmark in 1940,
he chose to travel to Britainto fight alongside the hours
before in North Africa,in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt,
taking partin behind enemy lines sabotage.
Right.
He would become well knownwhen fighting in the Aegean
and Greek islands, attackingGerman outposts, destroying
(40:28):
or completing objectives,
and then vanishing before attackcould be organized.
He also fought in Yugoslaviaand Italy,
with more behind the linesabotage.
So again he was caught
the accomplished soldierbefore joining the SRF.
I mean, I feel likethey probably all were right.
I think so, yeah.
Like, they're not going to takefresh recruits. Right.
He was awardedthe Military Cross three times.
(40:51):
So medal and two bars.
But most notably he was awardedthe Victoria Cross
which is extremely rare for aforeign national to receive.
So he was from Denmark.
Yeah.
It wasn't often
that they gave the VictoriaCross to people who weren't
British. Yeah.
I mean it's
probably hard to find peoplewho weren't British
in the British Armyto train with.
(41:12):
And then, you know, so fewpeople get the Victoria Cross.
He received this award for.
It's for his actions innorthern Italy at like Camacho.
He led a small forceas a diversion.
His job was to think,
to make the enemy thinkthere was a major landing force
to draw attention awayfrom the real Allied assault.
(41:33):
I think it was him inmaybe 11 or 12 other soldiers.
He advanced down a single road
and was engagedby multiple machine gun nests,
known for never retreating intohis objectives or completed.
He kept advancing
taking out two machineguns quickly with grenades
using covering farfrom his small force.
He advancedon the second position, again
taking the positionwith more light.
(41:56):
His force hadthen taken some casualties,
but he really reorganized themand advanced
on the third position,attacking again with grenades.
He got meters away
and ordered the remaining enemyout of their position.
While yelling at the troops,
he was hit from gunfirefrom the left, mortally wounded.
But even as he was falling,he still managed to finger
grenade at position, taking out
(42:16):
taking it out enoughfor the remainder of his forces
to advance and capture it.
He refusedto be evacuated, stating
it would impede the group'swithdrawal
and would endanger more lives
because that were running lowon ammunition and stuff.
So he's like,just, just leave me.
It's kind of
take out the rest of you.
Overall, through his leadershipand complete disregard
(42:37):
for his own safety.
Three positions were taken out,which included
six machine guns, killingeight enemy combatants,
wounding others,and taking two prisoners.
That led to Major Anders Larsenreceiving
the Victoria Cross posthumously.
He has a statue in Copenhagenand is remembered
as one of Denmark'sgreatest war heroes.
Yeah, I can see why. Yeah.
(42:58):
Pretty cool guy.
Pretty badass. Yeah. Yeah.
Cool guy is, like,
the most reductive wayI could say what he was.
Pretty sweet guy. Yeah. Just.
Yeah. Flinging grenades.
Positions. Yeah.
Just hackingGS. Yeah. Taking BS.
So in the movie, AlanRichardson, big beefcake dude.
Yeah. He's like,
(43:19):
punching Nazi soldiers.
Yeah.
It rips the heart out of oneof them and stuff like that.
So, yeah. Realistic thing to do.Yeah.
They played him upa little bit in the.
Yeah in the movie,but yeah, the a little. Yeah.
Well yeah.
I mean
not too much.
Yeah. It's obviously that,
Italy assault was after.
Yeah. Postmaster.
Russian postmaster.
(43:39):
The main character of the movie.
End of story. Major
Gustavus Henry March Phillips,
played by Henry Cavill.
He was often known as Gus.
He's often describedas a very charismatic man
and an inspirational leader.
We heard earlierthat, of his influence
(44:01):
in leading Operation Postmasterand the sheriff,
which would be the foundationfor what we know today. Yes.
Yes. Gus married after Operationpostmaster.
Fellow.
Sorry, agent Major Stewart,
who is in the movie,portrayed by Isaac Gonzalez.
But unlike the moviewhere Majorie is on the island
as an undercoveragent, in real life,
she was an intelligence officer
(44:22):
who never saw actionin the field.
Marjorie Marjorie.
For the same major. Marjorie.
I think actuallysame agent in the movie today.
Well they wrong.
I'm probably wrong.
Anyway, so those two, married.
Right.
How lovely.
After Postmaster March
Phillips would lead OperationAqua Tint.
(44:44):
That's also a good name.
I've said it beforeif you remember.
Yeah, I remember you alongsideAppleyard.
The mentioned the missionI mentioned earlier
but went wrong withthe SS rf March.
Phillips was one of the menkilled during that right.
Right.
Was launched at the wrong beach
and they came under extremelyheavy gunfire.
This was at Saint
on this pertes,which would later become part of
(45:07):
Omaha Beach from September12th, 1940 to Omaha.
So I, I what I read isyou don't meant to just do
like one of these night raids.
Take it like a radio positionor something.
Yeah.
I think it was for readyposition after you had actually,
mistakenlyidentified the wrong beach
(45:27):
and they landed this one,
which led to half of themgetting killed. And,
there's two reports onwhat happened to Matt Phillips.
One was he was shot while,
swimming ashore after his canoehad taken damage.
The other one was he was,like, holding position.
Okay.
Some of these guys to retreatwhen he was sure.
And yeah this was September12th 1941.
(45:51):
Postmaster was January 1940.
Not sorrySeptember of 1942. Postmaster.
It was January 1941.So not that long.
It was I mean,
it's only about six months
after he actually got marriedto Major Marjorie.
That's a shame. Yeah.
So, yeah, he's legend. Lives on.
One last personwho was in the movie
infamy, played by Freddy Fox.
(46:12):
He was the personal assistantto Rear-Admiral John Godfrey,
the director of navalIntelligence.
And Flemingwas a major contributor
to the planning of and politicalnavigation of postmaster.
So he planned it.
And like
what we were talking aboutbefore, like the subdivision of
was announced,it was blah, blah, blah. Yeah.
And yes, that is the same Ian
Fleming that would go onto write the James Bond novels.
(46:34):
And it is widely believed gasMarch Phillips is one of the men
Fleming based his iconiccharacter after which was Gus.
Yeah.
March. Phillips.
Gus. March Phillips. And,
this will see the end of thisepisode, because my next episode
is exactly about the menwho inspired James Bond.
(46:54):
I just remember that namewhere it's like
bond saying his name wrong,
and then he's like,I'm having a stroke.
Sorry, I haven't seen that.Don't worry.
That's irrelevant.
Yeah. Good.
Good episode.
I, I love hearing about these,like, slightly less known events
in in the wars because, like,those guys are all heroes.
Oh, yeah.
(47:15):
But we wouldn't know their name.
No. No. Big flashy. Yeah.
Oh. They were.
Yeah. Not big.
No, they contributed lots, but.
Yeah.
So, Oh, well,the only reason I know about it,
because of the movie,which led me to.
Yeah, look into it.
Not a bad movie, but I watch it.
Highlydramatized version of events.
(47:36):
But everything.
Well,they had silencers and stuff
on the gunsand pew pew pew pew pew.
But yeah.
Real people.
So I,
everyone in that movie.
Oh not everyone.
There's a few made upof characters in that movie, but
mostly the major plot is,are all real
(47:56):
players in the, in what wartake like just.
Play as this probably notwhat they call the police.
Of the soldiers.
Yeah. Real people. People.
I think the word you'relooking for is people anyway.
So. Yeah.Check it out if you want.
On Amazon Prime, I think.
Are you going to use my accountto watch it?
I have my aunt account.That was.
(48:17):
You are misremembering thisand you keep bringing it up.
I accidentally used
your credit cardto purchase one movie for 299.
Pretty sure it was midway to.
I think it was a kid's movie.
I think it was midwayand I think it was $1.99.
Even better, dollar 99.
And then you're like, here'smy cat for five years I've got.
(48:37):
No, I've never claimed it.You're still using it.
It's just funny to bring up
every time you mentionAmazon front.
All right.
I don't even know whyI had your credit card details.
I think you were usingmy account.
You'd use my accountfor something.
I think you bought something.I wanted to watch something.
I think
I think you were at my place onenight and we watched a movie.
(48:57):
Maybe, but I never watch movies,so that doesn't sound right.
And we used your account?
Yeah. Something you hadmy account for some reason.
And then
it's just funny to methat it was midway.
And then that was likeyour first episode.
Yeah, it was 200 cast. Yeah.
Coincidences.
Anyway. Good episode boy.Thanks.
(49:19):
Operation postmaster.
Part 2 or 3. Partthree of three.
Well we have side 101. Yes.
Because you're next.
And then we're doing somethingspecial for episode 100.
Yeah. Potentially.
Yeah. We have a good.
Look at what it is.You remember.
It's not a bit.
We don't know whatwe're doing yet.
Planning. Yeah.
(49:40):
Oh maybe 100 can be the.
We'll go to all the hugsbreaths.
Oh geez.
What a lot of workin the next eight.
A lot of prime real
a lot of work.
And four weeksthere's only like eight of them.
Yeah.
Once in Kane's true.
Hell, yeah.
We're gonna get us onJuly to get our kids back.
(50:04):
That would be fun, though.
We never make our money back.
But no.
Unless, express what sponsors,
Get on that.
Somebody who works in Hog'sbreath. Get on that.
If you know
someone who works in holdsbreath,
get them to their social mediaperson and head office.
Yeah. Get them this episode.
It's just has to be the lasttwo minutes.
(50:24):
We'll do it.
All right.
I will wear hog's breath attire.
He will. Wear a white suit.
Yeah. The pig. The big pink pig.
I would, I would wear thatfor an episode.
For whole episode. Yeah,we sweaty boy.
Oh, yeah.
We're coming into winter.It'll be okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
(50:45):
Anyway.
Good night.
Good night. Trevino's.
Farewell.
You've been listeningto Cheeky Tales podcast.
If you'd like to seesupplemental images
related to our episodes
or to interactwith us about our episodes,
hit us up on at Cheeky Tales
Pod on Instagram, Facebookand YouTube.
You can watch our episodeson YouTube
(51:05):
or listen to them on Spotify,Apple Podcasts or whatever.
You get your podcasts.
In my last episode,we learned about the scourge
of the German U-boatsduring World War II.
This episode we learn about
one of the counteracts to the U-boat
that was the inspiration behind
a Hollywood moviestarring Henry Cavill.
Welcome to Cheeky Tales.
And this is the storyof Operation Postmaster.
(00:30):
But what were they posting?
Espionage and sabotage.
I don't think you do thatthrough the post.
Yeah. Probably not. Yeah.
I love the waythat. Well, named.
Unless you're sending outanthrax.
That's a callback to 1998.
Was that a 98 thing?
I think that. Happened even,like two.
Thousand and two.
(00:51):
Yeah, I think it was a postlike it happened again.
Post 911. Yeah. Never forget.
Hey boy.
Hey what's what's going on.
How's married life.Yeah. Still the same. Yeah.
Been three.
Months. Yeah.
We had a look at some ofour photos again the other day.
And, that was fun.
There's like some really niceones in there of,
(01:12):
there's one thing. The bird.
Let's just.
Yeah. They're pretty fun.
Oh, we're.
Showing it off last night
because we're talking about,like, flipping the bird.
I'm like, hey,I booked my friend's wedding.
This is just.
There's one in particular.
It was one of the ones.
I think it's one of the oneswith just the groom's men.
Yeah.
It's like me and you guys,and you're, like, cuddling me.
You got, like, a hand in thejacket, like it's so sweet.
(01:35):
You know, like,I don't remember that at all.
You're like, eyes closed, like,
oh. I'll put it up in the show.
I thinkI think, the photographer
keep looking to say, like theI think, the instruction
from the photographer was like,oh, I love him.
So that's when I was like,yeah, yeah, crazy.
There was also one.
I can't remember which one.
(01:55):
It was where he was like,just attack him from behind.
Yeah. He just put hiswhole fist in my hand. Was.
I didnot know that happened, JT.
I was eitherhis name or his face.
You just, like,put it in your body.
Rather than somethingelse. Whoa.
No, I did look good. That.
Gross.
(02:16):
It's.
I don't know where to gofrom there.
Yeah.
Anyway, that's been Gigi, too.
Yeah.
That's, We'll see you next week.
That's right.
Yeah.
So, Yeah, this is parttwo of my three part trilogy.
Yeah.
Like I said, we my episode,
(02:37):
so two episodes agowas about the U-boats.
And this is kind of a follow onto that, but not directly, but
kind of a spiritual successor.
Yeah, kinda.
So let's begin.
Kick it off.
We're going to.
Begin that stamp and send it.
Yes. We're going to beginwith the formation of the CBI
(02:58):
Special Operations Executive.
As withmost government departments,
there was lots of movementof people between sections
and different divisionsmoving and forming.
But the abridged version is.
In June 1940, newly appointedPrime Minister Winston Churchill
merged three existingsecret departments section
D of the Secret IntelligenceService, also known as MI6
(03:19):
Department,each from the Foreign Office,
and military intelligenceresearch from the War Office.
Quick question on WinstonChurchill.
Picture him in your head.
Do you wear a hat? Yes.
Yeah.
That man probablythe most famous hat wearer.
Name another person
with a hat more associatedwith their personality.
Fred Durst but like Fred DurstAbraham Lincoln.
(03:40):
True. There you go.
There's the holy trinity of hatwears.
Abe Lincoln,Winston Churchill, Fred Durst.
Fred Durstfor making the biscuit.
Biscuit. Yeah. Okay, pictureFred Durst.
What's he wearing? That's.
I mean, we've got two worldleaders.
Limp Bizkit,spirit of those days.
(04:00):
You're talking about backwardscap, right?
Yeah, the red cap.
Yeah. Okay,
pictureFred Durst. Wearing the red.
I probably wouldn'tput him in that tree over.
I mean, in level of personalityassociated with hat.
He's on par with Abe Lincoln.
Okay.
Two namesyou can say in the same breath.
Okay.
I would probably think of.
(04:22):
Not the red baseball cap.
I'll probably go with
maybe an Australian famous
for wearing an Akubraor something like that.
Maybe I,
Clive Churchill.
No, not Clive Churchill.
Bob. Katter. Bob. Katter. Clive.
Rick. Clive church.
Churchill's a famous footballplayer.
Bob. Katter.
I was thinking of known madman.
What was I thinking of?
(04:42):
I've worn bobcat as cat hat.I'm. Yeah, yeah.
I'm into the, the coffee clubthat I worked at.
Oh, I was like,gosh, that's Bob Katter.
And they were like, oh, I like.
All right,let me explain. Who Bob Katter.
Yeah. Okay.
You uncultured. Swine.And then next minute.
Oh well, next minute they'relike, Aaron, come out here.
And they had himlike at the counter
because they said thatI knew him.
And he's.
Like bolts got a photo and.
He put the goodthe hat on my head.
(05:03):
Swimming bald tiny head. Aaron.
It's like a pinhead thing flopping about, but,
Yeah, thatwas an interesting afternoon.
And I don't have that photoarchive. Yeah.
So I can't prove myself.
But it did happen.
This has been hat chat.I've worn bobcat as hat.
We're goingto have a hot chat from about.
What do you mean?
Oh, just supplemental podcast.Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
(05:23):
Top ten hats.
Yeah, we've done three.
Yeah, for.
Yeah.
Worst hat.
That little like the onethat like old British man wear.
Like a bowler.
Isn't that what Churchill was.
A bowl is like the round onewith the like gutters.
Yeah.
Oh you mean likethe little flat.
Yeah. Flat cap. Or golf?
(05:44):
The golf hot topic.
Yeah,I hate them. The other one.
Anyway, back to the story.
Oh you mentioned hats.
Homogeneity.
I mentioned hatsin their last episode.
Like the worldrecord for the tallest hat.
Yeah. Yeah.
Did you see when they didthe wide brim.
Yeah. That was very. The.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah.
(06:05):
Another iconic hat.
The one in scream.
One on screen.
Yeah.
So there's a billion screamwhere the
I don't knowif she's the sheriff
or she's just likeone of the police officers.
Not scream scary movie.
Every time they show heron screen, her hat just keeps
getting bigger.
Like, at the end, it's huge.
(06:26):
Yeah, right.
So. Yeah.
Those three
departments were merged.
Thus the city was bornwith the direction
from Churchillto set Europe ablaze.
Okay.
I was like, what he toldthe first director of that.
Yeah. Interestseems a bit extreme.
(06:47):
Yeah.
Well,this was at the kind of point
where things weren't goingwell for England.
Well the Britain's in WorldWar two.
They were kind of losingat that point.
So I interesting side note here.
One other department formthat was the for the purpose
of creating weaponsfor irregular warfare.
Ministry of defense
(07:08):
one pretty much militaryresearch and development.
Well it's called MD one timemilitary defense. One.
It was not formally integratedinto the sorry
and remained independent,but worked closely with the SRB
and was informally knownas Churchill's Toy Shop.
Nice.I thought, that's pretty cool.
Cool name.
So he was heavily involved in.
(07:29):
Yeah. Sorry.
And just like this kind of
ungentlemanly warfare.
Is the name of the movieand also what it was called.
Good name.
The. So British. Yeah.
Oh there's a lot of Britishnames in here.
Yeah.
The director of the survey
is usually just referredto by the initials KD
(07:52):
and the like desc. Yes.
And the first was sirFrank Nelson.
He was under political.
He was under the politicalleadership of Hugh Dalton.
He was Ministerof Economic Warfare at the time.
So they kind ofhad like a political head
and like a military head. Yeah.
Interestingly,Dalton was removed
from the positionin February of 1942.
Speculation as to
(08:13):
why was because he was allegedlyusing
Sony's phonetapping capabilities to listen
to conversationsof fellow labor ministers.
Watergate.
And oh, he was viewed as twocommunal, mystically inclined.
He was a filthy read.
Down with communism. Yes.
(08:33):
He was also very interested injust like his kind of warfare
or like stirringunrest was like causing
labor strikes and riotsand all that kind of stuff. So
it was like very different fromwhat was
previouslyused by him for warfare.
The aim of the sorry column.
(08:55):
Thank you for that.
Robot vacuum cleaner.
It's about to get a bit noisya bit. Or.
Or is that stuck sayingit's kind of stop?
Yeah, but it's sort oflike that. There's like, oh.
Yeah,the vacuum is just going to.
It's going to startgoing in a second.
Come on please I can't wait.
Unless it just forgetswhere it is.
Oh no. It's likestuck on the power cable is it.
Oh there goes. There we go.
I'll sort that out and
(09:17):
stop.
I'm starting to charge.
That's lovely.
That's.
That's what power.
Oh, that's.
I hope you were in my short.
(09:40):
All right, so after thatbrief vacuum interlude.
Yeah.
The aim of the.
Sorry, as with its leadershipchange throughout the war,
but they pretty much revolvedaround one central idea sabotage
and subversion of the axiswar machine.
Sabotage.
Sabotage. Sabotage.
Why do you decide?
Like,
race favorite actor.
(10:01):
Adam Sandler?
Yeah. Well,I don't think it's him.
I think it's a cartoon.Or I'm sold in that.
I don't know. Sabotage.
I just the how he talks of.
Have you seen that bit?
Was, the talking about TimothyShani.
Yeah.
And she's like,just Timothy Sharratt.
You say his namelike Adam Sandler would.
Sharmila American like.
(10:24):
Yeah.
You can see it there.
How can I be honest? Like it?
I don't get the hypearound Shalini.
Neither do really boring.
Yeah, there'snothing exciting about him.
I mean, I can imagine.
Yeah, but, like.
You haven't seen you, have you?
No, of course I haven't.What do you mean?
I've never seen any movie.Ever. No, never.
Nothing wrong.
(10:45):
So, yeah.
Like idea of sabotageand subversion
of the axis war machinethrough indirect means.
Sometimes I write about this,
or I did engagein directly military actions
with the example of OperationHarling, which saw the cutting
of supply lines for accesstroops fighting in North Africa.
Right.
So sometimes I did
just directly engagein like front to front battle.
(11:08):
The North Africa bit
like everyone forgets that WorldWar two had a huge African.
Beat. North Africa was massive.
Yeah. It was. Yeah.
We always the movies
and all that always centeredaround, like, Europe.
Yeah. Like France and Germany.
The European campaignand the Pacific campaign.
But North Africawas just as bad, if not worse.
Probably a lot oftank combat in North Africa.
(11:30):
Well yougot lots of open ground.
Yeah.
Other high profile operationssuch as Operation Anthropoid saw
the assassination of ReinhardHeydrich on Rick in Prague.
Okay.
This was.
Prague,famously the capital. Of.
Going to say Denmark.
But that's Copenhagen.
(11:51):
No, Belgium? No.
No. Don'thave a phone or anything.
I've got my computer.
How do I not knowwhat Prague is?
The capital.
Sean will be screaming at this.
Capital of the Czech Republic.
I would not,I didn't guess that.
Well, cool. Yeah.
(12:11):
So, yeah, he was a high rankingNazi.
Was he, like,one of the main guys
that instituted the,Jewish prison camps?
I don't know.
I think so.
I'm sorry.
Heinrich Reinhardt. Yes.
Reinhard Heydrich.
Oh, it's not a namethat jumps to mind.
This is your episode.Oh I. Know.
(12:32):
I was expecting Shawneeto follow up on stuff.
All ranking German SS and policeofficer during the Nazi
era and principal architectof the Holocaust.
Yeah.
I was wrong.So, Principal dickhead.
Goody
not really deserves it.
This was the.
So hatredbetween the population of access
controlled countrieswith their occupiers.
(12:54):
This would then force the accessto expand to expend manpower
and resources on maintaining
the controlof their subjugated populations.
So, yeah, make them worried
about internal affairsrather than external.
I can spend resourceson internal ones
to weaken the external. Yeah.
Even though they were smallersuccessful
(13:14):
missions in their service life.
Operation PostMaster is considered
the first major successfulmission.
And was used as a moral baselineon how other missions
should be conductedin precision and boldness.
In 1941, British Admiralty
started receiving reportsthat German right like.
So we're on to the operationhere.
They started receiving reportsthat German submarines,
(13:36):
the U-boats, were usingthe rivers in Vichy French
parts of Africaas a vice Vichy, Vichy, Vichy.
Vichy France was the occupied,
rulership.
Okay.
The ones that were like,we're French, we love the Nazis.
Like, you know, French.
So the Vichy French
parts of Africaas a base for refueling,
(13:59):
a unit was selected and formedto investigate these reports.
The small scale writing force,or the Seraph,
also knownas the number 62 commandos.
This unit consisted of a groupof 55 Commando trained
personnel and was led by MajorGas Mark Phillips.
Right.
The unit splitand headed for Freetown, Sierra
(14:20):
Leone, arriving on September20th, 1941.
So what was. Freetown?
The name of the place? Yep.
Look. Right. Name.
So yeah, this is the townof Freetown in Sierra Leone.
They were pretty muchwhere like go
and seewhere these U-boats are going.
Yeah.
To be refueledbecause these are the U-boats,
as we discussedin the last episode
(14:41):
that were terrorizingthe Atlantic Ocean, hitting,
supply convoys. Yeah.
Merchant ships.So go check the ships.
Where are they?
And they were a group like the.
So they split into two groups.
There was a small, groupwith Gus.
Much groups, like five of them.
And like this
(15:02):
massive yacht.
And then the rest of the forcegot there
a couple of days early,and they agreed to meet up.
We'll rendezvous in Freetown.
When Devil's.
They sailed the many riversand the deltas of the region
searching for the submarinebase.
Unfortunately,they failed to find the base
or any evidence of submarineactivity in the area
(15:23):
or remained in the areaafter stopping the search
and became awareof three vessels in the quiet
port of Santa Isabelon the Spanish island
of Fernando Po,which itself was about 30km.
A lot of us kilometers.
A kilometer
was 30kmoff the coast of Africa.
Right.So this tiny little island,
(15:44):
how, Spanish controlled Espana.
This is going to be tricky.
Although Spainwas officially neutral
in the war,its government under Francisco
Franco was sympatheticto the axis cause.
Ideal situationfor the newly formed unit.
Hi there. I'd like.
Be quiet.
Subterfuge,you little sneaky guys. Yeah.
(16:06):
Do you little get into a scubasuit and swim up inside?
The plan was to seizethe three vessels
without harming civilians,
without alertingSpanish authorities,
and without causinga diplomatic scandal
that could push Spaincloser to the access camp.
Simple, right?
Sounds easy. Thanks.
Yeah. Do it this afternoon.Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, we'll see what you sayafter you find out what happens.
(16:27):
You might change. Change?
I don't think I'm being serious.
I think I'm understandingthat's a difficult task.
Like I'm saying,we'll see what happens.
The three open the three vesselsof concerned to the British
were the Italian yacht,the Joxer, the Costa,
an 8500 ton luxuries and fast.
A vesselcapable of long range travel.
(16:50):
Right. So a boat? Yeah.
A large German tugboat, Lacombe.
And another Germandiesel powered barge to Bondi.
Right.
Just as a quick, quick insightinto my life at the moment,
we just moved office.
Must be nice becausethe new one has river views.
I'm sitting there.
Oh. Like I got into work.
(17:10):
Watching the city cats. Yeah.
So fun watching them come past.
I see the, the blue onescompost every so often.
But I looked out the windowwhen I got into work one morning
and I was like,
that is the most storybooktugboat I've ever seen.
Oh, really?
It was like, picturea tugboat in a cartoon.
Yeah, it was that. Yeah.
Like black with, like, tiesaround the outside and, like,
(17:32):
the right tugboat shape.It was really. Cute.
I think you're gonna findmost boats look like that.
Nah, it was just very storybook,you know?
You know what?
I have two hoursaround the outside.
So I can bump into stuff.
And push it. Yeah,that's the job.
Well, no more tug.
It's in the name, boy.
Tug. Idon't know where you're going.
(17:52):
No, I think tugis the name of in South Park.
There's an episodewhere they've got Russell.
Russell Crowe is doinglike a travel show.
It's calledFighting Around the World.
And he's got a tugboat.
And I think it's called Tiger.
Tug of the tug.
That eventually somebody,like, shoots tug Guy
and he goes on a rampage,like fighting people.
(18:13):
Anyway, it's very random.
The intelligence report
suggested that these shipswere relating information
to the German U-boats or,and or resupplying them
for their operationsin the Atlantic.
There was a declared manifestfor the Duchess's cargo.
And it is as follows.
3 millionpounds of wool. Of wool.
(18:33):
Oh yeah.
316,610pounds of hides and skin.
Okay. So leather.
1.3 million pounds of tanningmaterials.
4 million pounds of copra.
Of what?
Copra. What's that?
I think it's a chemical powder.
(18:54):
Copra is the dried whiteflesh of the coconut from which
coconut oil is extracted.
Oh, so it's coconut. Yep. Okay.
Coconut powder? Yeah. Right.
Let's call it,
544,660 pounds of crudeasbestos.
Pharma. Nice.
Yum, yum.
And over 1.1 million ingots
(19:16):
of electric.
Electro matic copper.
Okay. That's a lot of stuff.
The first page of the manifest
wasn'tpresented to port authorities,
and the captainrefused to give any details.
So it was speculated that
it was also carryingarms and ammunition.
There was some back and forthfrom British higher ups
if the mission should go aheador not,
because of the potentialSpanish backlash
(19:37):
and eventually the final.Go ahead.
This was like
September up to Januaryof just back and forth of yeah,
we should do it.We shouldn't do it.
It's going to causetoo much issues,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
So there's all this stuffjust on the boat the whole time.
Like, how do they.
Well, I thinkfrom where it came from
to coming to the,
(20:01):
the port.
Yeah.
Of Saint Isabellasaying Isabella,
I think that was likeone of the trips
I, I don't obviously with theI think it might only be
one tripwithin that three months.
I don't think it's going backand forth constantly.
Yeah.
So yeah.
So final go ahead would be given
from the foreign Officeon January 6th, 1942,
(20:21):
even though there were stillhigh ranking
members of the British militarywho opposed the production.
So our little chefgot there in September,
and now it's January,
three months laterand they're like, yep,
you can go aheadwith taking these things.
So they're just. Hanging outfor like four months.
Yeah.
He's still gathering informationto find out
what they're actuallydoing and stuff like that.
(20:55):
Richard
Lippert, who was an Sebi agent,had taken up post on the island
under the guisehe was working as well.
He was workingfor a shipping company
with offices in the port town.
During his tenure there,he gained the information
that the crew of the Dutch S.A.
were in the habit of acceptinginvites to parties ashore,
as they had their own partyon board the Dutch
(21:16):
assault on January 6th,at which Lippert had attended,
and Mark discoveredshift crew shifts and.
Yeah, and stuff like that.
Wearing a suit, looking cool,looking cool. The guy.
Martini's.
Yeah, the governor or FernandoPao, captain Victor Sanchez.
Diaz.
He was also pro-Naziwith Israeli agents
(21:37):
based on the islands, withthe help of a British chaplain,
managed to procure compromisingphotos of Sanchez Diaz
with his mistress. Nice.
They use these to force him tolessen security on the island.
So I even I might.
We got photos of you. And you.Yeah. A little side piece.
How about you cut downon some of those? Security?
Yeah. Let's see.
Even though the Germans
(21:58):
were kind of using it as a bitof a market resupply base,
the majority of the securitywas still from the Spanish.
And so, yeah,like you just said, they used.
Hey, we've we're goingto tell you what I thought.
You need to get ridof some of these.
Security. Good advice.
If you're running securityat a high C high, high
importance military base,maybe you don't have a.
Mistress or just.
(22:19):
Not at all.
Well, onedon't have a mistress at all.
Well, yeah,I mean. In general. But like.
Also ifyou're using a military base
and using some other nations,security force.
Don't do that.
Have your own security force.Don't be. Lazy.
Well I think that might have
caused a bit of a problembeing that
like I said, Spain was neutral.
(22:40):
I mean. If they had likea Germany with Germany.
Yeah, I can say that.
Yeah. Well,you get what you get.
On the night of the plane,right?
January 14th,
Lippert had organizedthe captain and officers
from all three ships
to be invited to a dinner partyhosted by the local.
Sorry.
Blini. Oh. Zarrella. Right.
I really thoughtyou're going to say albinos.
(23:01):
Oh, I was trying not to, andit kept on wanting to come out.
The guy from the The Da VinciCode was having a party.
At 11:30 p.m..
Two tug boatswhich are departing from Lagos.
Two tigers? Yep. Yep.
The Vulcan with March Phillipsand his second in command,
Jeffrey Appleyard.
And the Newton
entered the harborand put their plan into action.
(23:24):
The Vulcan headed to the Dutch
and the Newtonto both the Lincoln Combat
and the Peabodyas they were anchored together.
So the Dutch archer was offparts of the tugboat
Barger, anchored togetherclose by, but not together.
Silently and quicklythe commandos boarded the three
vessels, quickly overpoweringthe skeleton crews left on board
(23:45):
as the rest were getting smashedat the dinner party,
explosives were,
Charges were placedon the ship's anchors
and docking chains,and when detonated,
all three vesselswere towed out to sea.
This was all done without a shot
being firedand took about 30 minutes.
Wow. That's very quick.
Very quick.
Yeah. Very easy.
As we were,I was kind of building up to.
(24:05):
This is going to be difficult.
Yeah.
And then it got onand they're like, hey,
do you want to get shot?
No. Yeah. Okay.
Pretty much. I'm in the harbor.
I think I took him prisoners.
I mean, that makes sense.
Yeah.
Took them prisonersexplosives from the times.
So that they'd
take the boats outand then blow them up.
Or do they blow them offand drag them out?
No, they blew up the chains.Oh, right.
So to release them from theanchors in the docking chains
(24:27):
and then,then tied them out to say, yeah.
Zarrella
the guy who organizedthe party was an excellent host
of the partyand a master of detail.
He kept the alcohol flowing
and had also arrangedthe seating plans
so the honored guestshad a full view of the party
with their backs to the window,facing away from the harbor.
Nice. Somebody like, hey,you should probably turn around.
(24:48):
He's like. No.
Yeah. He was.The wine is in front of me.
Hey, thisthis fellow was anti Nazi.
He was not happy withthe Germans and stuff like that.
So he was happy to helpthat. Sorry.
Even the drunkest of Germansailors
could not hear the explosionsof the anchors being released.
Can you imagine?
Just imagine for a second.
(25:09):
You like having a really greattime.
You're like,oh man, what a great dinner.
I'm going to thank the host.Thanks, man.
All right,let's go back to the harbor.
Something's missing here. Wow.
Funny enough you say that.
However, they mistook theexplosions, for an air raid.
And sothey made the anti-aircraft
guns and fought themsporadically in the air.
(25:30):
Just shoot anywhere. Yeah.
Eventually, realizing there wasno threat from the air.
They met.
They made their way downto the docks
to findthe vessels had vanished.
Oh, allegedly,
the shock of the inebriatedsoldiers made such a spectacle
that the localsthat had gathered
started to burst out laughter.
There are boats,so you're not too far off.
I parked it right here.
Dude, where is my boat?
(25:52):
I what does mine say?
Whatever. Look, this might say.
Well, no, no, no,but what does mine say?
Oh, Hitleris not going to be happy.
Did we just come up with a skitthat we need to film?
Thanks.
I'm going to cut this bitfrom the show.
Where is my vessel?
(26:13):
I didn't say, comrade.That was art.
What did the Germans say?
Heil Hitler!
That's a bad man.
I don't know what elsethey. Say, but they say I.
Do not. Cut that outand turn it into anything.
No, they say, comrade.
No, no, I know the Russian side,but counterpart.
Where is my.
Don't. I was a Nazi.
That's my boat.
(26:33):
Hmhmm. This is dusk boat.
Where is the boat?
Where is the boat?
What is Das Boot?
Where is my boot?
Oh, man.
But yeah.
So apparently the the localsknew what was going on.
They knew with explosionswhen they went randomly
looking up in the air, foreign.And they were.
Probably down the harbor
having a nice harboursidefish and chips.
But yeah, probably wouldn'tlaugh at Nazis occupied more
(26:56):
in my country than if I was alike a no no.
But then,like, they're not anti-Nazi.
Like the Spanish were neutral.
So they can laugh at everyone.
Yeah. True story.
Yeah. Anyway, so out to sea.
So, like I said, they towedthese boats out to sea.
January 15th.
The tugboatsand the captured vessels
(27:17):
were interceptedby the HMS Violet.
Yeah.
That was a British shipthat had been dispatched
to the area to meet upwith the group of vessels
to provide
Britain with the cover storythat the Italian
and German vesselswere intercepted
while heading out on their ownaccord.
Good.
So they already put thatin the plan that this warship
would meet them?
Yeah.
(27:38):
And I have the story like,
we captured these vessels
as they were heading outfor resupply or whatever.
Like that. Yeah.
Naturally, the Spanishgovernment was furious,
but there was really no
diplomatic consequences,
as there was really no evidencethat the British was involved.
The Brits downplayedthe incident, claiming
it was the three Frenchopposite operatives
that carried out the raid.
(27:58):
Germany would claimthat the British destroyer
had entered the harbor,deployed depth charges
to blow up the anchorchains and shot all the crews.
All the vessels crews
who did that, the German Germanywould put out the German.
The Germanswould put out a story
that the a British destroyerhad come in.
And. Did, that
the Brits would also deny this,
stating that no Britishor Allied
(28:19):
vessels were in the areaat the time,
which technically wasn't a lie.
I love a good not lie.
Because the the tugboatsthat our commandos were on,
they came from like us.
So they're like not British.
Exactly. Not lying.
I would state in a lightof broadcast that due to.
Due to the German intelligence.
(28:39):
Oh, sorry.
Due to the German allegations,a British reconnaissance patrol
was sent to the area and spotteda large unidentified vessel.
And British naval vesselswere in work to investigate.
So kind of playing
mind games to overallpretty well played by the Brits.
Yeah.
I actually findthis really fascinating
because we all knowof the big battles,
you know, like the landingNormandy,
(29:00):
the, Operation Mock Guardand all that kind of stuff.
Yeah.
Main power battalions stormingbeaches and towns.
Classic warfare. Yeah. Classic.
It is. It's classic. Warfare.
Judi one. Yeah.
But we don't often hearthe modern games
being played via communications,like on the of.
I mean, I supposedice less interesting, isn't it?
I find it interesting to.
(29:21):
Really make a movieout of out of ending fake news.
Where they have
what?
It's the League of the not like.
Yeah, but like,that's still an action movie.
No I know.
You can't really make a movieabout.
Getting. Fake news. Yeah.
It is.It was fake news like that.
I find it really well donethat I had the British destroyer
there ready to pick himup. Had the cover story.
(29:43):
And they're like oh you Primeit was us.
We haven'tgot to investigate this.
Oh there's anotherunidentified vessel there.
We're sending more boatsto investigate. Yeah.
So smart.
Smart very smart.
It's almostlike they're good at this.
This was like
kind of the first timethat they had done it.
It was likethey developed this kind of
(30:04):
espionage I supposeas I stated in the intro.
This operationwas the inspiration
for the movie Ministryof Ungentlemanly Warfare,
which is also what the Siri wassometimes referred to as.
Good name.
As I said before.
The movie is directed by GuyRitchie
and it's heavily adapted versionof what happens in the movie.
There's lots of gunfightsand killing,
(30:24):
not so much the quiet,quick operation that took place.
Yeah.
I mean,
getting on a boatand just going, hey,
yeah, you're a prisoner now.
And then, you know, back,right back.
There was lots of bloodshedand shooting and explosions
and stuff. Yeah. America.
England.
Well, yeah.
But, like, I'm sure the movie isvery American themed.
Probably.
(30:46):
So let's have a quicklook at some of the actors
and characters in the movie.
And they're real lifecounterparts.
So that's,that was their operation.
It was went off without a hitch.
That's why it's very successful.
Modeled is like a missionof precision.
Great success.
Yeah. Yeah.
Super super successful.
No casualtieson the Allied side.
(31:07):
No casualties on the
access side either.
Just three stolen ships.
And it's I mean the ships died.
Why did they not.Just take. Them.
They took them back to Lagos
and they repurposed themand they became battleships.
That must be so confusing.
When you see one of them.
And it'snow like a different country.
Because I wouldassume that they look German.
(31:28):
There was a tugboat.
Look. German.Does it have like a little SS.
No. The boats they stole.
One of them was a tugboat.
They stole a tugboat. Yes. Why?
Because it was probablyone of the.
It was.
Like a storybook, but.
It was probably taggingthe submarines
in the dock and stuff like that.Yeah. Wrong.
Oh, well.
So there was a German
barge and a German tugboatand the Italian luxury vessel,
(31:50):
which was like a cargo vessel,pretty much. Yeah.
Right.
I guess I wouldn't reallylook German.
I think a little SS hadlittle swastika.
Little, little. Spider.Every way.
That. Germans paint over that.
I don't know,I just like you see it.
As the is the talk aboutgot a little black mustache
and but it's, Permanently out.
(32:13):
It's got like a little,
little right armpoking, pointing upwards.
How are you going to do that?
I'm not going to say
I'm going to demonstratethat to you on the model.
I'm not going to do that.
I don't get clipped, especiallywhen I said I'll hit the roof.
What's what are you going to besure that you just brought?
That was a BrewDog lager.
Can you show me where the logois? BrewDog logo.
(32:33):
What's over there?
Where's where'sBrewDog situated?
I don't feel the rocket.
I'm not on that.
Audio listeners,if you want to jump.
On L says no to using Nazisignals.
Imagery.
Yeah.
Oh, dear listeners,if you want to quickly jump
across to the YouTube video,you'll
(32:54):
see metry and said, I heard up there.
That's a bit of a
visual gag, but, Yeah,
I was so tempted to do itfor the laugh, but then.
That.
You'd never get that offthe today fuck.
20 years time and Ireland'srunning for state office.
It comes as video.
I've just.
And I will be runningfor state office
(33:15):
and political ambitionsover here.
The honorable MP Aaron.
I'm not going to give youthe last nine.
It's even thoughit's in the title.
Of the title of the show.
I mean, it's every episodehas it at the bottom.
So Jeffrey Appleyard,
portrayed by Alex
Pettyfer.
(33:35):
I wouldn't expect,you know, the actor.
I didn't know that actor
is only really two actorsin this that are really not.
Anyway. He was,
he was alreadya distinguished soldier
before volunteeringfor the commandos in 1940.
He was awarded
the Military Crossfor his gallant
and distinguished servicesin the field,
for his partin rescuing two Upper
two operativesfrom Operation Savannah,
(33:59):
from the coast of France.
He then joined the teamfor Operation Post Master,
and afterwards was awardeda bar for his Military Cross.
So you can't get the MilitaryCross again?
You get a little bar andyou get a little powerful. Yep.
Like, technically,he was awarded it twice,
but you don't get the middleclass.
He continuedbeing involved in the SRF right
(34:19):
along the French coast,but an injury prevented him
from taking a part in OperationAqua attempt,
which was a disastrous operationfor the ten man squad
after half being killed andthe other half being captured.
That's not a good,Not a good follow up. No.
He was also a part of OperationBasil, which landed.
(34:40):
Assault.
Basil. Assault.
Tomato. Tomato.
Potato. Potato.
Which landed at Sark.
Capturing five Germans.
When one triedyelling a warning, he was shot
well in the rest of the Germanforces there.
On retrieving
three more prisonerstried escaping,
leading them to be shotand killed as well.
This action enraged Hitlerso much it caused him
(35:01):
to issue the infamous he'sa German word.
Let me have a crack
commando befell.
That didn't sound that hot.
It didn't, but it looks bad.
Which in English isthe Commando Order, which stated
that all captured commandos wereto be shot without exception.
Jews.
So these, like the chef,these commandos were like,
(35:24):
almost like guerilla style.
Just hit and running like.
Yeah, positionedalong the coast.
We made Hitler quite angry.
Yeah, I can imagine.
And he's such a chill guy.
You wouldn't expect it.
In the movie.
The squad led by March Phillipson the way to Fernando
Po, had to stop and rescue
(35:45):
Appleyard from a Germanoutpost on an island,
killing everyoneand blowing up a radio building.
So it was one of the
bloodiest scenes in the movie.
Yeah. This isn't true.
I tell you,Apple, God was never captured.
They didn't need rescuing.
But the
movie, makers did say that this
(36:07):
sequence is somewhatbased on a real story, right?
Where 4 or 5 soldiers arrived
and the Nazis who were stationedthere, some who were sharing,
all gave up immediately,with one allegedly fighting.
Yeah.
If someone comes in whileI'm having a shower with a gun,
I'm pretty much surrendering.Yeah.
Vulnerable. Position.
So, yeah, there was like.
It was like five soldiers
(36:27):
attack this German outpost,and then they all just went.
We gave up
and could I have a towel?
Possibly to pass the towel
covered by schnitzel?
Do you have a tattoothat says wonderful
on the back of you Vuh.
What does one say?
Well.
(36:49):
Not now.
Fritz.
Germany.
Appleyardwas then part of forming
the inner circle for the newsecond Special Air Service,
ISIS.
And it was.
It's twoI see, during July 1943,
the Allied invasion of Sicily,
(37:11):
Appleyard supervisedthe airdrop of SAS paratroopers.
And on the return flight overthe Mediterranean,
Appleyard plane disappeared
and he was declaredmissing, presumed dead. Oh,
so yeah, this CRF,
and these 55Commando is pretty much done
with a prelude to what we knownow, today is the SAS.
And therefore SAS Australia,our favorite TV show.
(37:35):
I thought Married at First Sightwas your favorite TV show.
It changesdepending on what's funny and.
Dependingon which is actually on.
I haven'twatched MAFs in a few years now.
Maybe there was that one seasonI got really into
and then never again.
Kind of like The Bachelor.I watched the one with omnibus.
I watched the trashy shows.
Honestly. Don't even start.
Don't even start.
(37:55):
I just all those romantic.
Oh, watchone season then give up.
Okay.
One season of The Bachelor andit was the Honey Badger season.
You just watch for Honey Badgerdidn't you.
Yeah. To be honestthat was 90% of it. Yeah.
And then the end.He didn't even choose anyone.
He just said no to all of themand let.
No. What a waste of time.
He just said to everyone.
(38:18):
He really did good.
Yeah.
It was just a season of himrunning around
with the shirt offand then going.
Yeah, actually, I thinkI might go back to dinner.
Douche dose.
And is Larsen Larsen
and is Larsenknown as the Viking commander.
Played by Rachel Akhtar.
I want Richardson in the movie.
(38:40):
Yep. Big big dude.
Do you still have no ideawho that is.
I don't know who that isactually.
He was in Lazer Team.
He was he was in laser team.
Oh yeah we did that.
Did you. Did you back that?
What do you remember?
I did.
But we did that big, like,
Rooster Teeth is gone thingin one of our episodes
a while back there,which dates back kind of.
(39:03):
Yeah.
Yeah, it got bought byone of the founders.
We left these beforeit was shut down.
Anyway, in the movie.
He's called the Danish Hammer
and usesa bow and arrow in the right.
Not quite true.
Danish. Hammer. Hammer.
Hammer, hammer.
That's not funny.
The Danish hammer.
(39:24):
Because he's a big boy.
Yeah.
He was he was,he was called the Viking
and he was proficient
with a bow and arrowand petitioned the War Office
to allow Baron Hoursto be used in combat.
Yeah. Nice. They rejectedrejected his request.
Yeah. Because, youknow, it's better that a gun.
However,he did use them in training
and was quite proficientwith bow. With the bow.
Reportedly,when shooting a stag,
(39:45):
the arrow would pass through
the deer entirelysticking into a tree beyond.
Right.
So that's just because he's
big. Strong boy. Strong boy.
Which they incorporatedthis detail in the movie
as the characterdoes it to a few Germans.
Oh yeah. Nice.This is how he got
his other nicknamethe Robin Hood Commando.
(40:06):
He was born inCopenhagen, Denmark.
And when that and when the Nazisoccupied Denmark in 1940,
he chose to travel to Britainto fight alongside the hours
before in North Africa,in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt,
taking partin behind enemy lines sabotage.
Right.
He would become well knownwhen fighting in the Aegean
and Greek islands, attackingGerman outposts, destroying
(40:28):
or completing objectives,
and then vanishing before attackcould be organized.
He also fought in Yugoslaviaand Italy,
with more behind the linesabotage.
So again he was caught
the accomplished soldierbefore joining the SRF.
I mean, I feel likethey probably all were right.
I think so, yeah.
Like, they're not going to takefresh recruits. Right.
He was awardedthe Military Cross three times.
(40:51):
So medal and two bars.
But most notably he was awardedthe Victoria Cross
which is extremely rare for aforeign national to receive.
So he was from Denmark.
Yeah.
It wasn't often
that they gave the VictoriaCross to people who weren't
British. Yeah.
I mean it's
probably hard to find peoplewho weren't British
in the British Armyto train with.
(41:12):
And then, you know, so fewpeople get the Victoria Cross.
He received this award for.
It's for his actions innorthern Italy at like Camacho.
He led a small forceas a diversion.
His job was to think,
to make the enemy thinkthere was a major landing force
to draw attention awayfrom the real Allied assault.
(41:33):
I think it was him inmaybe 11 or 12 other soldiers.
He advanced down a single road
and was engagedby multiple machine gun nests,
known for never retreating intohis objectives or completed.
He kept advancing
taking out two machineguns quickly with grenades
using covering farfrom his small force.
He advancedon the second position, again
taking the positionwith more light.
(41:56):
His force hadthen taken some casualties,
but he really reorganized themand advanced
on the third position,attacking again with grenades.
He got meters away
and ordered the remaining enemyout of their position.
While yelling at the troops,
he was hit from gunfirefrom the left, mortally wounded.
But even as he was falling,he still managed to finger
grenade at position, taking out
(42:16):
taking it out enoughfor the remainder of his forces
to advance and capture it.
He refusedto be evacuated, stating
it would impede the group'swithdrawal
and would endanger more lives
because that were running lowon ammunition and stuff.
So he's like,just, just leave me.
It's kind of
take out the rest of you.
Overall, through his leadershipand complete disregard
(42:37):
for his own safety.
Three positions were taken out,which included
six machine guns, killingeight enemy combatants,
wounding others,and taking two prisoners.
That led to Major Anders Larsenreceiving
the Victoria Cross posthumously.
He has a statue in Copenhagenand is remembered
as one of Denmark'sgreatest war heroes.
Yeah, I can see why. Yeah.
(42:58):
Pretty cool guy.
Pretty badass. Yeah. Yeah.
Cool guy is, like,
the most reductive wayI could say what he was.
Pretty sweet guy. Yeah. Just.
Yeah. Flinging grenades.
Positions. Yeah.
Just hackingGS. Yeah. Taking BS.
So in the movie, AlanRichardson, big beefcake dude.
Yeah. He's like,
(43:19):
punching Nazi soldiers.
Yeah.
It rips the heart out of oneof them and stuff like that.
So, yeah. Realistic thing to do.Yeah.
They played him upa little bit in the.
Yeah in the movie,but yeah, the a little. Yeah.
Well yeah.
I mean
not too much.
Yeah. It's obviously that,
Italy assault was after.
Yeah. Postmaster.
Russian postmaster.
(43:39):
The main character of the movie.
End of story. Major
Gustavus Henry March Phillips,
played by Henry Cavill.
He was often known as Gus.
He's often describedas a very charismatic man
and an inspirational leader.
We heard earlierthat, of his influence
(44:01):
in leading Operation Postmasterand the sheriff,
which would be the foundationfor what we know today. Yes.
Yes. Gus married after Operationpostmaster.
Fellow.
Sorry, agent Major Stewart,
who is in the movie,portrayed by Isaac Gonzalez.
But unlike the moviewhere Majorie is on the island
as an undercoveragent, in real life,
she was an intelligence officer
(44:22):
who never saw actionin the field.
Marjorie Marjorie.
For the same major. Marjorie.
I think actuallysame agent in the movie today.
Well they wrong.
I'm probably wrong.
Anyway, so those two, married.
Right.
How lovely.
After Postmaster March
Phillips would lead OperationAqua Tint.
(44:44):
That's also a good name.
I've said it beforeif you remember.
Yeah, I remember you alongsideAppleyard.
The mentioned the missionI mentioned earlier
but went wrong withthe SS rf March.
Phillips was one of the menkilled during that right.
Right.
Was launched at the wrong beach
and they came under extremelyheavy gunfire.
This was at Saint
on this pertes,which would later become part of
(45:07):
Omaha Beach from September12th, 1940 to Omaha.
So I, I what I read isyou don't meant to just do
like one of these night raids.
Take it like a radio positionor something.
Yeah.
I think it was for readyposition after you had actually,
mistakenlyidentified the wrong beach
(45:27):
and they landed this one,
which led to half of themgetting killed. And,
there's two reports onwhat happened to Matt Phillips.
One was he was shot while,
swimming ashore after his canoehad taken damage.
The other one was he was,like, holding position.
Okay.
Some of these guys to retreatwhen he was sure.
And yeah this was September12th 1941.
(45:51):
Postmaster was January 1940.
Not sorrySeptember of 1942. Postmaster.
It was January 1941.So not that long.
It was I mean,
it's only about six months
after he actually got marriedto Major Marjorie.
That's a shame. Yeah.
So, yeah, he's legend. Lives on.
One last personwho was in the movie
infamy, played by Freddy Fox.
(46:12):
He was the personal assistantto Rear-Admiral John Godfrey,
the director of navalIntelligence.
And Flemingwas a major contributor
to the planning of and politicalnavigation of postmaster.
So he planned it.
And like
what we were talking aboutbefore, like the subdivision of
was announced,it was blah, blah, blah. Yeah.
And yes, that is the same Ian
Fleming that would go onto write the James Bond novels.
(46:34):
And it is widely believed gasMarch Phillips is one of the men
Fleming based his iconiccharacter after which was Gus.
Yeah.
March. Phillips.
Gus. March Phillips. And,
this will see the end of thisepisode, because my next episode
is exactly about the menwho inspired James Bond.
(46:54):
I just remember that namewhere it's like
bond saying his name wrong,
and then he's like,I'm having a stroke.
Sorry, I haven't seen that.Don't worry.
That's irrelevant.
Yeah. Good.
Good episode.
I, I love hearing about these,like, slightly less known events
in in the wars because, like,those guys are all heroes.
Oh, yeah.
(47:15):
But we wouldn't know their name.
No. No. Big flashy. Yeah.
Oh. They were.
Yeah. Not big.
No, they contributed lots, but.
Yeah.
So, Oh, well,the only reason I know about it,
because of the movie,which led me to.
Yeah, look into it.
Not a bad movie, but I watch it.
Highlydramatized version of events.
(47:36):
But everything.
Well,they had silencers and stuff
on the gunsand pew pew pew pew pew.
But yeah.
Real people.
So I,
everyone in that movie.
Oh not everyone.
There's a few made upof characters in that movie, but
mostly the major plot is,are all real
(47:56):
players in the, in what wartake like just.
Play as this probably notwhat they call the police.
Of the soldiers.
Yeah. Real people. People.
I think the word you'relooking for is people anyway.
So. Yeah.Check it out if you want.
On Amazon Prime, I think.
Are you going to use my accountto watch it?
I have my aunt account.That was.
(48:17):
You are misremembering thisand you keep bringing it up.
I accidentally used
your credit cardto purchase one movie for 299.
Pretty sure it was midway to.
I think it was a kid's movie.
I think it was midwayand I think it was $1.99.
Even better, dollar 99.
And then you're like, here'smy cat for five years I've got.
(48:37):
No, I've never claimed it.You're still using it.
It's just funny to bring up
every time you mentionAmazon front.
All right.
I don't even know whyI had your credit card details.
I think you were usingmy account.
You'd use my accountfor something.
I think you bought something.I wanted to watch something.
I think
I think you were at my place onenight and we watched a movie.
(48:57):
Maybe, but I never watch movies,so that doesn't sound right.
And we used your account?
Yeah. Something you hadmy account for some reason.
And then
it's just funny to methat it was midway.
And then that was likeyour first episode.
Yeah, it was 200 cast. Yeah.
Coincidences.
Anyway. Good episode boy.Thanks.
(49:19):
Operation postmaster.
Part 2 or 3. Partthree of three.
Well we have side 101. Yes.
Because you're next.
And then we're doing somethingspecial for episode 100.
Yeah. Potentially.
Yeah. We have a good.
Look at what it is.You remember.
It's not a bit.
We don't know whatwe're doing yet.
Planning. Yeah.
(49:40):
Oh maybe 100 can be the.
We'll go to all the hugsbreaths.
Oh geez.
What a lot of workin the next eight.
A lot of prime real
a lot of work.
And four weeksthere's only like eight of them.
Yeah.
Once in Kane's true.
Hell, yeah.
We're gonna get us onJuly to get our kids back.
(50:04):
That would be fun, though.
We never make our money back.
But no.
Unless, express what sponsors,
Get on that.
Somebody who works in Hog'sbreath. Get on that.
If you know
someone who works in holdsbreath,
get them to their social mediaperson and head office.
Yeah. Get them this episode.
It's just has to be the lasttwo minutes.
(50:24):
We'll do it.
All right.
I will wear hog's breath attire.
He will. Wear a white suit.
Yeah. The pig. The big pink pig.
I would, I would wear thatfor an episode.
For whole episode. Yeah,we sweaty boy.
Oh, yeah.
We're coming into winter.It'll be okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
(50:45):
Anyway.
Good night.
Good night. Trevino's.
Farewell.
You've been listeningto Cheeky Tales podcast.
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(51:05):
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