Who would've thought a dessert with a name like "spotted dick" and inflatable tanks would have anything in common? Well, we at Smarticus Tells History promise to take you on a wild ride exploring the uncanny connections between these two seemingly unrelated topics. Today, co-host Phoenix and I uncover the intriguing and lesser-known stories behind the inflatable tanks or 'spoofs' used by the British Army during World War II, and the traditional British pudding, spotted dick. We've had quite the adventure creating and tasting this classic dessert, and we can't wait to share our experience (and the recipe) with you!
But the fun doesn't stop there. Ready for a ghost story like no other? We reveal the undisclosed tales of the Ghost Army, a special unit during WWII that specialized in the art of deception. Led by the ingenious Colonel Harry L Reeder, this team of artists, engineers, and audio experts successfully used inflatable tanks and planes to confuse the enemy, shaping crucial events such as the D-Day invasion and the Battle of Arnhem. Their legacy lives on, influencing even our popular culture. So buckle up, history enthusiasts! This episode of Smarticus Tells History is filled with laughs, learning, and a dash of culinary fun.
Recipe:
https://www.daringgourmet.com/traditional-spotted-dick-english-steamed-currant-pudding-with-vanilla-custard/#recipe
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Episode Transcript
Welcome to.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Smart, smart and Hell's.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
History.
Alright, enough with the Echoand Fanfare.
You're here for history, right,and not that boring crack you
learned in high school.
This stuff's actuallyinteresting, like things you've
never heard about the Civil War,cleopatra, automobiles,
monopoly, the Black Plague andmore Fascinating stories,
interesting topics and somedownright weird facts from the
(00:27):
past.
It's a new twist on somestories you may know and an
interesting look at some thingsyou may have never heard.
So grab a beer, kick back andenjoy.
Here's your host, smarticus.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Smarticus
Tells History.
I am your host, smarticus,accompanies by my co-host,
phoenix.
Hello, today we're going totalk about something that not
only sounds funny but is alsoreally impressive in its
deception.
Phoenix, do you like bountycastles?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
You bet I do.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
All right, then you'll probably get a kick out
of the inflatable tanks that theBritish used during World War
II.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Oh yes, the dummy tanks or, as the British armed
forces called them, spoofs.
But let's talk about food.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, we got food to go here first, so we were
already joking about this.
It's our food, because wealready did a British food item.
It was a breakfast item, butthis time we decided to do a
dessert and Wow, it's likewelding my mouth shut.
Yeah, we chose to do spotteddick.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yes and the jokes we have made the whole time about
it.
You, yeah, they are endless.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
We did.
We made several jokes about it,because it is it's funny.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Oh my gosh, I can really taste the lemon zest in
mine, can you?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I don't even try to, yet Let me take a bite out of it
.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
I don't know if it's supposed to taste like this or
not, because this is my firsttime making it.
I'm making it, but also I hadto use gluten-free flour when,
but I also looked at agluten-free version of spotted
dick and it was pretty much thesame thing.
That aside, it's very dense.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's not as fluffy as I thought it would be, so yeah,
so, despite its ratherunfortunate name, spotted dick
is a tasty and subtlysweet-steamed British dessert.
Mm-hmm, your whole family canenjoy spotted dick.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Spotted dick, sir.
What Spotted dick.
He believes this kind of tryingto get something to use.
Ask me if I got the clap.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
The name comes from the ingredients Traditionally
dried currants.
There's no dick in this, justto be clear.
Oh, spotted dick, oh no, Ithink I'll pass.
I'm not really a dessert man.
Dryed currants which create thecharacteristic spots in an old
English name of pudding puddickor puddick probably.
(03:00):
Of course, in the US puddingtypically refers to a thick,
custard-like sweet dessert, butin the UK puddings are boiled or
steamed desserts made withflour.
The latter is what to expectfrom preparing spotted dick.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Oh my god, I am not mature enough for this
conversation.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Even while we were talking, I said like I saw it
and I was like I'm a child.
I think we should probablyshould go ahead and just do this
one.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
I know we could have done almost anything for this
whole situation.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You really could have .
Speaker 3 (03:40):
But we had to do spotted dick to go with our
spoofs.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yep, yep, I mean, yeah, I don't know, we could
have done tips or French friesfor us, I guess, or whatever
that would have been boring.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
It's actually Belgium , by the way.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Oh, okay, see, that wouldn't have been right.
Just go to show how much I know.
But yeah, so we did spotteddick.
It's really easy to make forthe most part.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
If you've got a big pot, right, if you've got a big
pot to have the steam bath,basically for your container to
make the spotted dick, it's amuch easier situation.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, you had to put a little pot inside of a big pot
or a little bowl or a mold.
I actually went out and boughta mold this morning actually to
make this and I just used a, abunt mold, the cake, you know
just, I guess just a regularupside down cake mold, whatever
you want to call it, I had ametal mixing bowl.
Yeah, I don't have any of that,so that's all my all my bowls
(04:52):
are plastic and they would havemelted.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, that wouldn't be bad.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Although my mixing bowls, I mean like I could use a
regular bowl, I guess, and aregular, you know, cereal bowl
or whatever, and put it in there.
It probably would have beenfine.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
But yeah, the recipe did say if it was, if it was
acceptable to for it to beheated, it'd be fine.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, yeah.
So I went ahead and I bought afour inch bunt cake pan, and I
bought a 10 inch one too,actually, but the four inch one
worked just fine for this recipe.
But it's really simple.
You probably already have mostof the stuff there at home.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I did, unless you're like me and you don't cook with
vegetable shortening.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Right, If you do a lot of baking you probably
already have it, the shorteningand whatnot or you know whatever
.
But it called for a tail.
I didn't even use butter Meeither.
I just sprayed the cake pan.
But it says a tablespoon ofbutter to for greasing the pan.
Salter, unsalted is totallyfine.
One and three quarter cup ofall purpose flour you can use.
(05:59):
I'm sure you can use prettymuch whatever flour you want.
Two and a half teaspoons ofbaking powder.
Well, like you, you used.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Yeah, I used King Arthur's gluten free all purpose
flour.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I just used great value.
One more brand all purposeflour.
So two and a half teaspoons ofbaking powder, half a cup, plus
two tablespoons of the vegetableshortening or suet.
So the recipe called forvegetable shortening.
So that's what I used Criscovegetable shortening.
Ditto.
Three tablespoons of brownsugar lightly packed.
(06:33):
It did not say light or dark.
I used light.
Did you use?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I think I used light as well.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, I did both.
I just I bought light.
I bought light yesterday so Iwouldn't have not just used it,
but I did have dark brown sugaralso.
One cup of currants or raisins.
Zest of one lemon, so I onlyhad like the tiniest amount of
zest came off my lemon.
I was very disappointed and Ihad to like scrape it off the
(06:58):
side of the grater to get it tocome off on the inside where it
wasn't going to cut me.
And I did no cuts this time.
I was extra careful when I wasusing it so I had very little to
actually put in there, but Iput it in there and then and
(07:19):
then two thirds cup of a wholemilk, of a whole milk, two
thirds cup whole milk, and thenI did not do this part.
I totally forgot about it evenafter we talked about it was the
last night.
This is usually served with acustard, I guess, like regular,
you know American pudding.
I guess we call it you guys.
I guess you guys is putting isstuff like this, but a kind of
(07:41):
custard, and it has ingredientsto make your own little custard
type.
It's optional.
This is one and a half cupheavy cream, six egg yolks, two
tablespoons granulated sugar anda pinch of salt.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yep, you have to warm that up slowly, otherwise you
curdle the eggs.
I did not do the custard either, because I custard to me is not
worth it, something to make,because you're using just the
yolks and the rest of the whiteyou just posted.
I guess save or use insomething else.
But I don't want to.
(08:15):
I want.
I want the yolk in the rest ofthe whites to.
It's just not worth it.
To me it's like losing half ofmy delicious ingredient.
No, thank you.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, so I told you the other day While we were
looking at this, I was justgoing to get me a snack pack of
vanilla pudding or chocolatepudding to go with it, and then
I told you I forgot to do thattoo.
So I failed on the second partof this completely.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
But he wasn't prepared.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, it even says it's optional.
So Yep, but this is a veryBritish cuisine dessert.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
It's a dessert.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
And, if you're interested, apparently there are
453 calories per serving.
I don't think you're going tocare.
Yeah, I just happened to scrolldown some more and I read that
that's what it said.
So Gotcha.
It has all of it has 55 grams ofcarbs.
You know, whatever your print,you guys probably don't care.
(09:24):
I mean I don't and I mean itanyways.
I'm actually trying to losesome weight, so, but for this
I'll make exceptions.
Um, all right.
So Natalie talked about Ispotted dick.
I just spotted dick.
Now we get to go talk aboutinflatable toys Military grade
(09:52):
Military grade inflatable toys.
So World War II is a time ofgreat innovation and ingenuity.
In spite of nations around theglobe trying to gain an edge on
the battlefield, in 1940, afterthe fall of France, britain was
left standing alone against themight of Nazi Germany.
The British military faced anenormous challenge to protect
(10:13):
their island nation from thelooming threat of invasion.
The British forces wereoutnumbered and outgunned, and
they knew that they needed tocome up with a creative solution
to fend off the enemy.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
So the Brits got clever.
The 23rd headquarters specialtroops, better known as the
Ghost Army, gathered artists,career military officers and
audio experts in one specialunit dedicated to deception, the
first mobile multimediatactical deception unit in US
Army history.
According to the National WorldWar II Museum in New Orleans,
(10:43):
the Ghost Army developed asimple enough idea to deceive
the enemy and make them believethat there were more troops and
equipment on the ground thanthere actually was.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Led by Colonel Harry L Reeder, the Ghost Army
comprised of 82 Army officersand 1,023 recruits.
These recruits were artstudents from the Industrial
Camouflage Program who knewthere was even such a thing, and
the Pratt Institute in New York.
There is also fashion designerBill Blass, photographer, art
cane and painter Ellsworth Kelly.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
The Ghost Army faced their first daunting task.
They had to create a productthat was lightweight, durable
and realistic.
They experimented with variousmaterials, including rubber,
canvas and plastic.
What they ended up settling onwas a wooden sometimes metal
skeleton overlaid withinflatable tubes, covered in
rubberized canvas colored tolook roughly like a real tank
(11:33):
from a distance.
They were designed to befoldable and thus easily
portable.
Eventually, they were placedover jeeps for easier and faster
arrangement.
Wow, that's pretty clever,right?
If you ever get the chance togo and look at the pictures from
I think it was the World WarTwo Museum in New Orleans, look
at the pictures that they haveonline.
They're really cool becausethey get up close and then they
(11:54):
show you from a distance what itlooks like.
It's wild.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Huh, there's a game called Ace Combat.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
The one that I'm thinking was Ace Combat 7.
And they had this in there.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Did they really?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
That's cool yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
The signal company concocted fake radio traffic
that mimicked the Morse codesending style called FIST.
That was specifically to armyunits.
Larry DeCure's, a curator atthe World War Two Museum, is
quoted as saying to the trainedear that telegraphic FIST is
almost like a fingerprint.
In addition to this, the audioengineers pre-recorded military
(12:31):
training and construction sound,which was labeled sonic
deception.
These recordings were played onspeakers close enough to German
troops so that they wereconvinced that entire units
occupied locations that wereactually undefended.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
The first spoofs were used.
In 1942, during the NorthAfrican campaign, the British
military deployed 2000 of theinflatable tanks in the region
to see how well their dummytanks could deceive the enemy.
Their biggest hope was that theNazis would believe that there
were more allied troops andequipment on the ground than
there actually were.
The tactic worked.
The German forces were confusedand overwhelmed by the sheer
(13:07):
volume of equipment and theywere forced to retreat.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
The success of the inflatable tanks in North Africa
led to further use in othertheaters.
War, including the D-Dayinvasion of Normandy, called
Operation Fortitude.
The British and American forcesdeployed a large number of
spoofs in the weeks leading upto the invasion in an effort to
deceive the Germans in two ways,the first being the size of the
units deployed, while thesecond was to hide and downplay
(13:32):
the importance of the actualinvasion location.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
The ghost army went to Padukale, france, well in the
line of sight of the Germanforces, while the actual forces
were set to invade Normandy.
This was a small part of thewhole deception, because at that
point in the war the Nazisweren't able to fly
reconnaissance planes overEngland.
Dummy landing craft was alsostationed in ports of Eastern
and Southeastern England wherethe Germans could see.
(13:57):
Of course, operation Fortitudewas mostly carried on the backs
of double agents in false radiotraffic.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
The British military continued to use inflatable
tanks and planes throughout thewar, refining and improving the
designs over time.
One of the most successful usesof this tactic was during the
Battle of Arnhem in 1944.
The British military deployed anumber of inflatable tanks and
other equipment to deceive theGermans about the location and
strength of their troops.
Again, the Germans were cut offguard.
However, the success wasshort-lived, as the Germans soon
(14:27):
realized the tanks were notreal and adjusted their strategy
accordingly.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Operation Wirsten was one of the most successful the
Ghost Army had during the war.
From March 18th to the 25th in1945, 600 spoofs were deployed,
with even more soldiers andengineers in fake uniforms to
impersonate actual units.
They had the special recordingsto fool the Germans into
thinking construction was goingon by the 30th and the 79th
(14:51):
divisions who were preparing tocross the Rhine River.
And it worked.
The Nazis moved the bulk oftheir forces to the other side
of the Rhine and shelled an armythat didn't exist.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
By creating the illusion of a larger army, the
Allied forces were able toconfuse and deceive the enemy
again and again, helping toachieve strategic objectives and
save lives After the war andoutside of their military uses,
which has not been left behindin history.
Newer inflatable tanks andplanes also have made an impact
on popular culture.
They have been used in a numberof films and television shows,
(15:22):
becoming an iconic symbol ofingenuity and resourcefulness.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
So, in conclusion, the British military got clever
and managed to bring artists andengineers together to help
during World War II, with a pureintention of deception.
While they had theirlimitations, these big
inflatable vehicles played manyimportant roles in saving lives,
while applying every magician'ssecret weapon misdirection.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
We hope you've enjoyed learning about this
fascinating aspect of history.
Thank you for joining us forthis episode of Smarticus Tells
History.
If you enjoyed this episode,please subscribe and leave us a
review.
We'll be back with more storiesfrom the past.
Until then, keep exploring.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Thanks for listening to Smarticus Tells History.
If you enjoyed this episode,don't forget to rate and review,
and make sure to subscribe andbe sure to follow the show at
facebookcom slash SmarticusTells History or just click the
link in the show description.
Thanks again for listening.
See you next time.
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