December 16, 2024 • 26 mins
The Old Time Christmas Radio Channel from REL-MAR McConnell Media Company is a delightful auditory journey back to the golden age of radio, where the spirit of the holiday season comes to life through classic broadcasts. This channel features a treasure trove of family-friendly shows that harken back to yesteryear, offering a charming mix of nostalgia and heartwarming tales perfect for listeners of all ages. Listeners can enjoy timeless Christmas favorites that include festive stories, and comedic sketches from beloved classic radio programs. Each broadcast is carefully curated to evoke the magic of Christmas, transporting audiences to a simpler time filled with joy, laughter, and the warmth of family gatherings. Waith a rich library of vintage audio from iconic shows, the Old Time Christmas Radio Channel creates an enchanting backdrop for holiday celebrations. Whether you’re decorating the Christmas tree, wrapping gifts, or enjoying a warm beverage by the fire, this channel provides the perfect soundtrack to make your holiday season even more special. Tune in and let the delightful narratives and jingling tunes rekindle cherished memories and create new traditions for generations to come. For more Old Time Radio and other great programming from REL-MAR McConell Media Company visit www.xzbn.net. Merry Christmas Everyone from REL-MAR McConnell Media Company – www.rel-mar.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
They DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, makers of Better Things
for Better Living through Chemistry, presents the Cavalcade of America.
Our play is Barbed Wire Christmas, based on the true
experiences of gis in a German prisoner of war camp.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Our star Edmund O'Brien.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Time a few days before Christmas nineteen forty four, the
police an American prisoner of war camp deep in Germany.
In a snow covered compound. The group of American prisoners
stand shivering in the icy wind, waiting for morning roll calls.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
When your hair sa fish, your cantatation the mess, let's
probably come a.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Dunt ad eve of Christmas.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
The curfew would be extended to one o'clock.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Didn't notice It's eve a Christmas horney and all as
a knight says usual any prisoner found outside barracks rib shot.
Speaker 6 (01:27):
This is the story of that Christmas Eve, a Christmas
that I and four thousand other American enlisted men spent
in a German prison camp. We lived in flimsy barracks,
surrounded by bob wire and trigger happy German gods.
Speaker 7 (01:42):
We were forever cold and wet.
Speaker 6 (01:44):
And hungry, and I mean really hungry. My name is Peterson,
Sergeant Burt Peterson, as the elected leader of one hundred
and fifty men of Barracks thirty five B, my main
problem was to keep us all alive until the Allied
armies came for and now, with another horrible German winter beginning,
(02:04):
the only thing that kept us from doing something desperate
and suicidal was our conviction that it wouldn't be too
long now. Most of us kept up our hopes, but some,
like a kid from West Virginia named Nick, like to
sit around the barrack and worry about it.
Speaker 8 (02:20):
Hey, Pete, how long you think it'll be?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Huh?
Speaker 8 (02:23):
I mean before we get out?
Speaker 5 (02:24):
I don't know, Nick, soon, I hope for like when.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I mean make a guess? Huh?
Speaker 9 (02:28):
Well, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
Maybe maybe a month if we're real lucky.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
And we're real lucky time fellaws.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
You gotta roof over our heads three square meals a month,
and all the water we can drink. Who needs more
outside of human beings? That is our animals? Why a month?
Speaker 8 (02:43):
Our guys are in Germany already only four hundred miles away.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Now four hundred.
Speaker 10 (02:47):
Miles nothing at all.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
They'll be bouncing in here in the pogo sticks.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
First thing tomorrow, Pete, Hey, Blackie, what are you men?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Over to the Chaplain's office?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Hey, you know we're all gonna have a midnight Mass Christmas.
Speaker 11 (02:58):
Even the chapel.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Ain't that charm? And what do you mean we all?
Speaker 10 (03:01):
I mean a whole camp.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Anybody wants to come?
Speaker 8 (03:03):
That's better, because frankly, I couldn't be less interested.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, we know, we know.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Hey, Milstein, Father Moran wants to know if you'll sing
at the service.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Why not? Head you hear the BBC news this morning?
Speaker 5 (03:14):
No, no, I didn't, mellow lion.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
Well, this Jerry God was talking outside just now and
he said that the Americans and the British were retreating
like crazy back into Belcher and that the war was
just starting.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
He said, we'd be here for years.
Speaker 10 (03:26):
Yeah, they're always yacking like that.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I already believe that stuff. I don't know that. It's
just what I heard. Is all.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
Well, we can check it tonight on the radio.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
But it sounds funny to me.
Speaker 8 (03:36):
It better because I ain't staying here another winner. You're not, no,
my friend, I'm not.
Speaker 12 (03:40):
I had plenty last winter, more than plenty, and I
ain't taking it again.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
So what you got in mind?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Nick?
Speaker 8 (03:46):
There's four thousand of us, ain't there?
Speaker 10 (03:48):
Four thousand against a handful of crowds?
Speaker 13 (03:50):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Nick?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
You ever hear about left?
Speaker 6 (03:53):
Three our guys try to mass break there, remember, and
I got mowed down like so much hay, not one
man out, not.
Speaker 12 (04:01):
One So they didn't plan, right, That's all all I
know of. That stuff about the Jerry's counter attacking is
on the level. I ain't staying here, and brother, I
won't be the only one. Believe me that.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I believed them all right?
Speaker 6 (04:18):
If the news was true, that they all kinds of
desperate prison breaks, all resulting in one thing, plain simple suicide.
That night to catch the VDC news, I hold out
the crystal set I'd built. Radios were strictly forbidden by
the Jerry's, so we had to take precautions.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
What do you want me beat?
Speaker 10 (04:40):
Get that window? I said, Okay, a hud. You get
by the door and sing out if you hear anything
right and loud.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
Because I can't hear so good with these ephones on. Okay,
all clear here, nobody coming, all right, now.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Keep it quiet.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Huh the news ought to be on right now?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
What's he saying, please guys, and I'm what you say.
Speaker 10 (05:04):
There's news quiet where you're quiet? Nineteen year Yeah, I
got it. I think it's London.
Speaker 6 (05:11):
Yeah, here's the news now right west on Western Front,
situations increasing, these serios attack and vicious counter attack. German
forces have bozed back into Belgium in some places the depth.
Speaker 10 (05:31):
Of fifteen miles.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
The United States hundred and first Airborne Division reported to
be cut off and surrounded at best Stone.
Speaker 10 (05:39):
Oh so it's true. Uh so it's true. So we're
never getting out of here, never getting.
Speaker 7 (05:48):
Out of here.
Speaker 6 (05:57):
Yes, it seemed to be true, alright that we little
was said that night after the news. The lights went
out at nine as usual, and as we crawled into
our sacks, no one slept. Each man I knew was
lying there, thinking, brooding, planning, slowly building himself up to
a state of suicidal desperation. As barrack leader, was my
(06:17):
job to get their minds busy with something else.
Speaker 10 (06:20):
But what Finally, long after.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
Midnight I thought of something, And in the morning, first
thing after old call, I called a barrack All right,
you guys, send it down on the purpose of this meeting. Well,
it's not very long until Christmas, and.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Well we haven't done anything about it.
Speaker 8 (06:42):
What the ould tide season upon us? So soon? Gracious me?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
At times of Christmas is this place? Who cares?
Speaker 6 (06:48):
Well?
Speaker 5 (06:49):
I don't next for one?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
You would? Okay, so I'm.
Speaker 6 (06:51):
A sentimental fool, but I well, I had some kind
of a Christmas tree, for instance, every year of my
life and in.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Some kind of Christmas and I'm gonna have them this year.
Speaker 6 (07:02):
Jerry's I know, Jerry's count me in meet to k
Blackie and the name's Millstein.
Speaker 10 (07:08):
And I still think it's a good idea.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
Had a boy said like I said.
Speaker 8 (07:11):
I still don't care.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Oh shut up, will you? What do you got in mind? Pete?
Speaker 6 (07:16):
Well, like like a Christmas tree for one, and decorations
and some kind of special dinner, and we could put
on a show, and later there'll be the midnight Mass
for whoever wants to go, goody, goody goody?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Would you shut up with that stuff?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You want to go to your mass, you go to
your mass. This is a free country.
Speaker 7 (07:34):
That's a joke, son.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Just slipped out ship forget.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Anyway, we gotta have some committees, say Blackie, yeah, how'd
you like to be chairman?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Of the dinner committee.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
Okay, sure, I've heard you are the comic around here.
Suppose we put you in charge of the show.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Oh no, no, you don't, boy, Okay, okay, we vote
all those in favor of hudbeing chairman of the Entertainment committee.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
Say, I oppose.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Lotion care o pat sake? Got all? And this show
better be good?
Speaker 8 (08:04):
Boy, You're gonna get four dozen right tomatoes?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Right then? Hey, I've gone crazy at something. Who's got tomatoes?
Speaker 6 (08:18):
And so began What I came to think of is
Operation Christmas.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
And it started to work.
Speaker 7 (08:24):
In each of us.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
Memories of wonderful Christmas's long past were stirred into life,
and strangely, each of us began to.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Think of Christmas as his own personal.
Speaker 7 (08:34):
Possession to be recreated here.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
In this dismal place.
Speaker 10 (08:38):
Down to the last minute detail, there.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Were even a few arguments.
Speaker 8 (08:42):
A star on top of the tree, How.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Comes Sidan a star? What else? For Pete's sake?
Speaker 10 (08:48):
An angel?
Speaker 14 (08:49):
You're dope, you gotta have an angel on the tree.
An angel? You craziest something? You always have a star?
Star of bethlab somebody you don't even know what Christmas
is about?
Speaker 8 (09:01):
Sure I know what Christmas is about.
Speaker 12 (09:03):
Look, didn't this angel come to the shepherds out in
the field and tell him that Jesus.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Was born and where to find him? Yeah?
Speaker 8 (09:09):
Okay, that's why you always have an angel on top.
And I'm chairman of the decorating committee.
Speaker 11 (09:13):
We're having an angel, okay, okay, so we put both
on top, put a star around an angel, okay.
Speaker 10 (09:20):
Okay, all right, okay, no need to get this horrible.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Who's getting sold?
Speaker 6 (09:28):
Yes there were arguments, but behind them all was a
deep common concern, a common.
Speaker 7 (09:34):
Spirit, the spirit of Christmas.
Speaker 6 (09:37):
And as Christmas Eve drew near, our tensions and worries
were forgotten in our preparations for the party. All right,
sonar apart from the dinner committee, Blackie.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Right, Well, well this is what we got worked out
for us.
Speaker 10 (09:51):
Each guy puts in two squares.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Of k rations and one square d bar, and then
he had.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Some prunes, a couple of slices of spam or some
liver paste, what he's got, and I'm gonna make us
some cake out of what is commonly referred to as.
Speaker 11 (10:05):
Ingredients, being namely some sodium bicarb tablets.
Speaker 15 (10:08):
And thank you, Fanny Farmer, yes, everything was going signed,
and then the worst happened.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
It was the morning of Christmas Eve.
Speaker 6 (10:26):
We were all busy with our various job in the
barracks when we heard the shout that meant we weren't alone.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
God is it carry and house?
Speaker 14 (10:35):
Carry the house?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Ada?
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Yeah, I signed your mind message from.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
The commandan to night it baby from beaten to have
the midnight mess.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
What do you mean forbidden at one o'clock coffee bish
to be allowed?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
But the messid just a minute, just a minute?
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Why no mass? I do not make no honestop.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Oh, I know mass is forbidden, obdon.
Speaker 14 (11:09):
That's not a flip, it's a matter.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
They're going crazy.
Speaker 10 (11:16):
What's the matter with a man?
Speaker 5 (11:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (11:17):
They always got some stupid reasons like that.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I don't not a bit, you know. I got a
notion to go anyways.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yeah, and what trouble will give him trouble?
Speaker 11 (11:28):
What are you yacking about, hud You weren't going anyway
all right?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So I never had much use for that religious stuff.
But to me having a mask not to go to
it is just as big as Joe having a mass
to go to.
Speaker 12 (11:38):
Try it again in English, maybe it's more like this, Blackie.
Speaker 7 (11:41):
You're a Catholic and I'm a Jew.
Speaker 10 (11:43):
But we've only got one chaplain here, And well.
Speaker 12 (11:45):
He happens to be Catholics, so well we've got to
sort of spread him around, so to speak.
Speaker 7 (11:50):
When he talks about God, I think of my garden, and.
Speaker 12 (11:54):
Pete here thinks of his, and hud here thinks of his,
assuming he's got one.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Sure I got one. What do you mean? You think
I'm some kind of atheist or something?
Speaker 8 (12:01):
One more?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Nobody said that? Huh?
Speaker 6 (12:03):
Nobody said that, And let's sim it down.
Speaker 10 (12:06):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Well, I'm going over to the chapel tonight, and I'd
like to see the Jerry or anyone else who's gonna
stop me?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Me too. I'm going to They'll kill you, They'll kill
all of you. He wouldn't dare.
Speaker 8 (12:21):
What difference does it make for Pete's sake? Who's gonna
live here?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Anyway?
Speaker 10 (12:24):
I promise to sing Pete, and I'm singing.
Speaker 8 (12:27):
We're all going Pete, whether you like it or not.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
What are you gonna do about it? Boy? Do about it?
Speaker 6 (12:35):
I don't know, I frankly don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Now we returned to our cavalcade, played barbed wire Christmas
starring at mnd O'Bryan.
Speaker 6 (13:17):
It was Christmas Eve nineteen forty four. We were a
bunch of Gis and the prisoner of war camp in Germany.
As a barrack leader, I found myself faced with a
serious problem.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
My guys were going to.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
Chapel the midnight mass, whether it meant getting shot or not.
All I could do was go over and take it
up with other barrack leaders. And when I got to
the office there were a couple of dozen other guys
standing on the steps, barrack leaders and the compound leaders
and also the chaplain saw them around.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Hello Pete, you too, are hi, Padre?
Speaker 7 (13:48):
Say what goes on here anyway?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Well, it's a strange and wonderful thing, Pete.
Speaker 13 (13:52):
Seems that four thousand GI's Catholics, Protestants and Jews are
suddenly all up in arms about a mass that most
of them weren't going to anyway. So He've asked to
come and down to meet us here everybody.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Huh uh huh.
Speaker 6 (14:07):
I thought it was only my guys. Hey, look here
he comes, drive an army and all.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Well, you asked to see me about what Captain.
Speaker 13 (14:19):
Marian Colonel it's about the mess. First you gave permission,
and now you've forbidden it.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Start point in the city. Forbid it.
Speaker 10 (14:28):
Too many men in one place.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Not why, but Colonel, the men are determined to go.
Speaker 7 (14:32):
So you tell them it is forbidden.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Excuse me, Colonel.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
They know it's forbidden, they know they might get shot,
but they're at the point right now.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Where they don't care.
Speaker 6 (14:41):
So if you want a few thousand corpses on your hands,
you're gonna get him.
Speaker 10 (14:44):
No, I want no trouble here.
Speaker 13 (14:46):
Then may I suggest that you asked to get stuff
out to reconsider very well?
Speaker 10 (14:51):
I will ask, but the answer will take time.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Captain. If it does not come before midnight, the.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Order must be enforced, regardless of the consequences.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
You will take your men they ought not will be enforced.
Speaker 13 (15:05):
Qua well, Padre, I don't know, boys. We could call
off the service, just close up the caple. But if
the men show up anyway, I think I'd better be
head ahead off trouble.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
You know, I just can't get over it.
Speaker 13 (15:24):
I mean, what crazy, contrary, unreasonable, stubborn, and still profoundly
wonderful characters Americans can be.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
I just can't get over it.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
Well, I went back to the barrack and breathed the
guys on what I'd heard. They listened and nodded and
said nothing. They hadn't changed their minds about going to
the mass just didn't want to argue about it. Barrek
thirty five b was really something to see. That night,
(16:01):
Nick and Miller had built us a beautiful tree made
out of branches fastened to a broomstick candle, and it
was decorated with gallons of white tissue, scraps of colored paper,
and spirals of tin from our powdered milk cans. And
on the very top there was an angel carved from.
Speaker 7 (16:17):
Soap fastened to a cardboard star.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
Yes, it was really something to say.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
Dinner time came and still no word from the commandant.
We had a fine Christmas eat dinner that night. The
spam was dried just right and the potatoes were boiled
to perfection. The dessert we each had three stewed prunes
and a slice of Blackies specially baked cake pretty good too,
whatever he made it out of.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
And then came the long awaited show.
Speaker 6 (16:54):
We had all kinds of acts, but what I remember
especially was Nick because he sang of.
Speaker 10 (16:59):
Home top of a small keys all covered with snow,
lost my true.
Speaker 9 (17:08):
Lover from Corky to slow.
Speaker 7 (17:12):
On top of a small.
Speaker 10 (17:17):
I went fairly.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
For of those horrid.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
We had comedians too, like the act that Hudd and
Blackie put on.
Speaker 11 (17:31):
As a charmante opacy Hosh was time to make an
honest living. And he'll come to New American prisoners. I'm
looking for the prisoner of war camp. If I come
to the right place. Oh, you do know creeks your language,
(17:54):
so happens, and I know every word of the Geneva
convention before from your intimate men. I wonder if I've
come to the right place. Well, anyway, take me to
the dining room. I'm hungry enough to eat a horse.
To eat a horse.
Speaker 9 (18:10):
Yes, yeah, you have come to the right place.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yes.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
It was a fine show, but under all the laughter
and applause, we knew that the men were still determined
to go to that mass. Come with me. It was
late when the show ended. We sat around quiet now
and exchanged Christmas presents with our best buddies. They were
(18:38):
strange gifts, some of them, but very precious in many ways.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Hey, hey, how do you like that a can opener?
Speaker 8 (18:45):
Hey, said, where'd you get it?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
This isn't the one you had?
Speaker 12 (18:50):
You just think I'm out of my head giving you
my only can opener.
Speaker 7 (18:54):
No I had an extra one.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Well fine, I mean thanks, thanks a lot. It's real
charming of your boy hair. Alright, got something for you. Hey, guys,
the time, that's almost twelve. Anybody interested?
Speaker 8 (19:11):
Yeah, yeah, I'm interested.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
Hey just a minute, hand, just a minute, fellas, now,
please give me a minute. I'll be brief, alright, So
right now, we never had it so bad. But we'll
get out of here, you know, we will if we
can just stay alive a little while longer.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Don't forget.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
We've got lives waiting to be lived.
Speaker 10 (19:37):
Back home, We've got we've got.
Speaker 6 (19:40):
Girls waiting, and and kids waiting to be born and raised,
and and houses waiting to be lived in warm houses
with with good.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Food on the table.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
Okay, Okay, you don't want any part of it, Okay,
so go on out.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Now and get yourself shut.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Guy might be right, you know, well maybe so Hey,
hey outside, look, Paul Marble. Guys from the other pirates
heading for the chapel.
Speaker 7 (20:11):
Okay, there's gonna be a mess. I'm gonna sink.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, let's go.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Jerry's wanna stop a few thousand of us Let him try.
Speaker 7 (20:19):
C Well, Pete, how about you?
Speaker 6 (20:25):
Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, I'm coming, let's go.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
The chapel was already jammed when we got there.
Speaker 6 (20:43):
There wasn't room for those who came after us, And
soon there were hundreds of guys outside, bunched around the
open doors and windows, standing hatless in the snow. Inside
up by the cardboard candle a altar somebody I couldn't
he began to play the wheezy old organ. The faces
(21:05):
around me were tight with determination and anxiety. Where were
the Jerrys. Why hadn't we run into any on our
way to chapel? Obviously they were laying low, But why
we didn't know?
Speaker 10 (21:18):
We were tense, afraid.
Speaker 6 (21:22):
Whatever Father Miran felt during that midnight lass, it didn't show.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
For him.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
The Jerry's and their barbed wire no longer existed. It
was Christmas and he was honoring the premise of peace.
And then from outside we began to hear something, and
a whisper starting among the men outside in the snow
swept inside the chapel. From man to man, memory's nerves
(21:49):
were a hair trigger.
Speaker 10 (21:50):
Attention, Jerry's, Jerrys are coming.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Okay, let him start something, didn't you?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
The Jerry's work coming.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
We could see them coming, so just across the snow,
rifles in hand. In a minute or two they were
at the champel, lodding. We held our breadth and waited.
Not a minimumus moved, but we were ready for anything.
Then Father Moran turned pleased to come and seemed to
(22:20):
give a nud to Sydney Millston.
Speaker 9 (22:24):
Ah and night ooly night all Is Calm, all Is Bride, Ramon,
the Ogent Moll, the rancher poly and so Ander and.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Min, I said, saying that age old him.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
The Jerry's pushed their way into the chapel, and overcrowded
as it was, gradually our prison place of worship was
filled with our gods and captors. I knew that one
of them was right behind me, but I didn't turn around.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yes, s.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
No licord.
Speaker 9 (23:26):
All shp.
Speaker 10 (23:33):
Hey listen, yeah, how do you like that?
Speaker 7 (23:45):
And then we knew the Jerry's weren't there to stop us.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
But to join us.
Speaker 6 (23:50):
In all our anger and fear, we'd forgotten one thing.
It was Christmas for them too, and Remembering this, we
began to sing.
Speaker 7 (24:00):
We all began to see.
Speaker 6 (24:14):
The sky seemed wonderfully clear that night as we walked
back to our barracks, and the stars strangely bright. We
didn't have to talk, because each man's thoughts were alike.
We knew now that the words we'd heard for so
long were really true, that Christmas isn't only an anniversary,
but a universal spirit of brotherhood, of.
Speaker 7 (24:36):
Peace and good will. And in realizing these things, we'd
lost our fear.
Speaker 6 (24:42):
We knew somehow that it wouldn't be long, that we'd
soon be free, that we'd soon be home. And we
knew too that this would always be the most memorable
Christmas of our lives.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Our thanks to Edmund O'Brien and the cavalcade players for
the Knight's true story Barbed Wire Christmas was written by
Warner Law in collaboration with David Gerber and was based
on mister Gerber's personal experiences in the German prison camp.
Original music for to Night's Upon Cavalcade was composed by
(25:50):
Arden Cornwell, conducted by Donald Bories. The program was directed
by John Zeller with our star Edmond O'Brien. You heard
Gary Wahlberg, George Peach, Read Bhil Zuckert, Ross Martin, Harry Jackson,
Ed Jerome Tonio, Selbert Kermit Murdoch, Danuco, and Nelson Omstead.
(26:11):
The Duponk cavalcad of America came to you tonight from
the Glasgow Theater in New York City and is sponsored
by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, makers of Better
Things for better living through chemistry.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Tonight just for Lass.
Speaker 7 (26:32):
Listen to Red Skelton on NBC
They DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, makers of Better Things
for Better Living through Chemistry, presents the Cavalcade of America.
Our play is Barbed Wire Christmas, based on the true
experiences of gis in a German prisoner of war camp.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Our star Edmund O'Brien.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Time a few days before Christmas nineteen forty four, the
police an American prisoner of war camp deep in Germany.
In a snow covered compound. The group of American prisoners
stand shivering in the icy wind, waiting for morning roll calls.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
When your hair sa fish, your cantatation the mess, let's
probably come a.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Dunt ad eve of Christmas.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
The curfew would be extended to one o'clock.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Didn't notice It's eve a Christmas horney and all as
a knight says usual any prisoner found outside barracks rib shot.
Speaker 6 (01:27):
This is the story of that Christmas Eve, a Christmas
that I and four thousand other American enlisted men spent
in a German prison camp. We lived in flimsy barracks,
surrounded by bob wire and trigger happy German gods.
Speaker 7 (01:42):
We were forever cold and wet.
Speaker 6 (01:44):
And hungry, and I mean really hungry. My name is Peterson,
Sergeant Burt Peterson, as the elected leader of one hundred
and fifty men of Barracks thirty five B, my main
problem was to keep us all alive until the Allied
armies came for and now, with another horrible German winter beginning,
(02:04):
the only thing that kept us from doing something desperate
and suicidal was our conviction that it wouldn't be too
long now. Most of us kept up our hopes, but some,
like a kid from West Virginia named Nick, like to
sit around the barrack and worry about it.
Speaker 8 (02:20):
Hey, Pete, how long you think it'll be?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Huh?
Speaker 8 (02:23):
I mean before we get out?
Speaker 5 (02:24):
I don't know, Nick, soon, I hope for like when.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I mean make a guess? Huh?
Speaker 9 (02:28):
Well, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
Maybe maybe a month if we're real lucky.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
And we're real lucky time fellaws.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
You gotta roof over our heads three square meals a month,
and all the water we can drink. Who needs more
outside of human beings? That is our animals? Why a month?
Speaker 8 (02:43):
Our guys are in Germany already only four hundred miles away.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Now four hundred.
Speaker 10 (02:47):
Miles nothing at all.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
They'll be bouncing in here in the pogo sticks.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
First thing tomorrow, Pete, Hey, Blackie, what are you men?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Over to the Chaplain's office?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Hey, you know we're all gonna have a midnight Mass Christmas.
Speaker 11 (02:58):
Even the chapel.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Ain't that charm? And what do you mean we all?
Speaker 10 (03:01):
I mean a whole camp.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Anybody wants to come?
Speaker 8 (03:03):
That's better, because frankly, I couldn't be less interested.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, we know, we know.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Hey, Milstein, Father Moran wants to know if you'll sing
at the service.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Why not? Head you hear the BBC news this morning?
Speaker 5 (03:14):
No, no, I didn't, mellow lion.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
Well, this Jerry God was talking outside just now and
he said that the Americans and the British were retreating
like crazy back into Belcher and that the war was
just starting.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
He said, we'd be here for years.
Speaker 10 (03:26):
Yeah, they're always yacking like that.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I already believe that stuff. I don't know that. It's
just what I heard. Is all.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
Well, we can check it tonight on the radio.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
But it sounds funny to me.
Speaker 8 (03:36):
It better because I ain't staying here another winner. You're not, no,
my friend, I'm not.
Speaker 12 (03:40):
I had plenty last winter, more than plenty, and I
ain't taking it again.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
So what you got in mind?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Nick?
Speaker 8 (03:46):
There's four thousand of us, ain't there?
Speaker 10 (03:48):
Four thousand against a handful of crowds?
Speaker 13 (03:50):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Nick?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
You ever hear about left?
Speaker 6 (03:53):
Three our guys try to mass break there, remember, and
I got mowed down like so much hay, not one
man out, not.
Speaker 12 (04:01):
One So they didn't plan, right, That's all all I
know of. That stuff about the Jerry's counter attacking is
on the level. I ain't staying here, and brother, I
won't be the only one. Believe me that.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I believed them all right?
Speaker 6 (04:18):
If the news was true, that they all kinds of
desperate prison breaks, all resulting in one thing, plain simple suicide.
That night to catch the VDC news, I hold out
the crystal set I'd built. Radios were strictly forbidden by
the Jerry's, so we had to take precautions.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
What do you want me beat?
Speaker 10 (04:40):
Get that window? I said, Okay, a hud. You get
by the door and sing out if you hear anything
right and loud.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
Because I can't hear so good with these ephones on. Okay,
all clear here, nobody coming, all right, now.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Keep it quiet.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Huh the news ought to be on right now?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
What's he saying, please guys, and I'm what you say.
Speaker 10 (05:04):
There's news quiet where you're quiet? Nineteen year Yeah, I
got it. I think it's London.
Speaker 6 (05:11):
Yeah, here's the news now right west on Western Front,
situations increasing, these serios attack and vicious counter attack. German
forces have bozed back into Belgium in some places the depth.
Speaker 10 (05:31):
Of fifteen miles.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
The United States hundred and first Airborne Division reported to
be cut off and surrounded at best Stone.
Speaker 10 (05:39):
Oh so it's true. Uh so it's true. So we're
never getting out of here, never getting.
Speaker 7 (05:48):
Out of here.
Speaker 6 (05:57):
Yes, it seemed to be true, alright that we little
was said that night after the news. The lights went
out at nine as usual, and as we crawled into
our sacks, no one slept. Each man I knew was
lying there, thinking, brooding, planning, slowly building himself up to
a state of suicidal desperation. As barrack leader, was my
(06:17):
job to get their minds busy with something else.
Speaker 10 (06:20):
But what Finally, long after.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
Midnight I thought of something, And in the morning, first
thing after old call, I called a barrack All right,
you guys, send it down on the purpose of this meeting. Well,
it's not very long until Christmas, and.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Well we haven't done anything about it.
Speaker 8 (06:42):
What the ould tide season upon us? So soon? Gracious me?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
At times of Christmas is this place? Who cares?
Speaker 6 (06:48):
Well?
Speaker 5 (06:49):
I don't next for one?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
You would? Okay, so I'm.
Speaker 6 (06:51):
A sentimental fool, but I well, I had some kind
of a Christmas tree, for instance, every year of my
life and in.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Some kind of Christmas and I'm gonna have them this year.
Speaker 6 (07:02):
Jerry's I know, Jerry's count me in meet to k
Blackie and the name's Millstein.
Speaker 10 (07:08):
And I still think it's a good idea.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
Had a boy said like I said.
Speaker 8 (07:11):
I still don't care.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Oh shut up, will you? What do you got in mind? Pete?
Speaker 6 (07:16):
Well, like like a Christmas tree for one, and decorations
and some kind of special dinner, and we could put
on a show, and later there'll be the midnight Mass
for whoever wants to go, goody, goody goody?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Would you shut up with that stuff?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You want to go to your mass, you go to
your mass. This is a free country.
Speaker 7 (07:34):
That's a joke, son.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Just slipped out ship forget.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Anyway, we gotta have some committees, say Blackie, yeah, how'd
you like to be chairman?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Of the dinner committee.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
Okay, sure, I've heard you are the comic around here.
Suppose we put you in charge of the show.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Oh no, no, you don't, boy, Okay, okay, we vote
all those in favor of hudbeing chairman of the Entertainment committee.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
Say, I oppose.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Lotion care o pat sake? Got all? And this show
better be good?
Speaker 8 (08:04):
Boy, You're gonna get four dozen right tomatoes?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Right then? Hey, I've gone crazy at something. Who's got tomatoes?
Speaker 6 (08:18):
And so began What I came to think of is
Operation Christmas.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
And it started to work.
Speaker 7 (08:24):
In each of us.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
Memories of wonderful Christmas's long past were stirred into life,
and strangely, each of us began to.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Think of Christmas as his own personal.
Speaker 7 (08:34):
Possession to be recreated here.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
In this dismal place.
Speaker 10 (08:38):
Down to the last minute detail, there.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Were even a few arguments.
Speaker 8 (08:42):
A star on top of the tree, How.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Comes Sidan a star? What else? For Pete's sake?
Speaker 10 (08:48):
An angel?
Speaker 14 (08:49):
You're dope, you gotta have an angel on the tree.
An angel? You craziest something? You always have a star?
Star of bethlab somebody you don't even know what Christmas
is about?
Speaker 8 (09:01):
Sure I know what Christmas is about.
Speaker 12 (09:03):
Look, didn't this angel come to the shepherds out in
the field and tell him that Jesus.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Was born and where to find him? Yeah?
Speaker 8 (09:09):
Okay, that's why you always have an angel on top.
And I'm chairman of the decorating committee.
Speaker 11 (09:13):
We're having an angel, okay, okay, so we put both
on top, put a star around an angel, okay.
Speaker 10 (09:20):
Okay, all right, okay, no need to get this horrible.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Who's getting sold?
Speaker 6 (09:28):
Yes there were arguments, but behind them all was a
deep common concern, a common.
Speaker 7 (09:34):
Spirit, the spirit of Christmas.
Speaker 6 (09:37):
And as Christmas Eve drew near, our tensions and worries
were forgotten in our preparations for the party. All right,
sonar apart from the dinner committee, Blackie.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Right, Well, well this is what we got worked out
for us.
Speaker 10 (09:51):
Each guy puts in two squares.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Of k rations and one square d bar, and then
he had.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Some prunes, a couple of slices of spam or some
liver paste, what he's got, and I'm gonna make us
some cake out of what is commonly referred to as.
Speaker 11 (10:05):
Ingredients, being namely some sodium bicarb tablets.
Speaker 15 (10:08):
And thank you, Fanny Farmer, yes, everything was going signed,
and then the worst happened.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
It was the morning of Christmas Eve.
Speaker 6 (10:26):
We were all busy with our various job in the
barracks when we heard the shout that meant we weren't alone.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
God is it carry and house?
Speaker 14 (10:35):
Carry the house?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Ada?
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Yeah, I signed your mind message from.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
The commandan to night it baby from beaten to have
the midnight mess.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
What do you mean forbidden at one o'clock coffee bish
to be allowed?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
But the messid just a minute, just a minute?
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Why no mass? I do not make no honestop.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Oh, I know mass is forbidden, obdon.
Speaker 14 (11:09):
That's not a flip, it's a matter.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
They're going crazy.
Speaker 10 (11:16):
What's the matter with a man?
Speaker 5 (11:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (11:17):
They always got some stupid reasons like that.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I don't not a bit, you know. I got a
notion to go anyways.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yeah, and what trouble will give him trouble?
Speaker 11 (11:28):
What are you yacking about, hud You weren't going anyway
all right?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So I never had much use for that religious stuff.
But to me having a mask not to go to
it is just as big as Joe having a mass
to go to.
Speaker 12 (11:38):
Try it again in English, maybe it's more like this, Blackie.
Speaker 7 (11:41):
You're a Catholic and I'm a Jew.
Speaker 10 (11:43):
But we've only got one chaplain here, And well.
Speaker 12 (11:45):
He happens to be Catholics, so well we've got to
sort of spread him around, so to speak.
Speaker 7 (11:50):
When he talks about God, I think of my garden, and.
Speaker 12 (11:54):
Pete here thinks of his, and hud here thinks of his,
assuming he's got one.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Sure I got one. What do you mean? You think
I'm some kind of atheist or something?
Speaker 8 (12:01):
One more?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Nobody said that? Huh?
Speaker 6 (12:03):
Nobody said that, And let's sim it down.
Speaker 10 (12:06):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Well, I'm going over to the chapel tonight, and I'd
like to see the Jerry or anyone else who's gonna
stop me?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Me too. I'm going to They'll kill you, They'll kill
all of you. He wouldn't dare.
Speaker 8 (12:21):
What difference does it make for Pete's sake? Who's gonna
live here?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Anyway?
Speaker 10 (12:24):
I promise to sing Pete, and I'm singing.
Speaker 8 (12:27):
We're all going Pete, whether you like it or not.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
What are you gonna do about it? Boy? Do about it?
Speaker 6 (12:35):
I don't know, I frankly don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Now we returned to our cavalcade, played barbed wire Christmas
starring at mnd O'Bryan.
Speaker 6 (13:17):
It was Christmas Eve nineteen forty four. We were a
bunch of Gis and the prisoner of war camp in Germany.
As a barrack leader, I found myself faced with a
serious problem.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
My guys were going to.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
Chapel the midnight mass, whether it meant getting shot or not.
All I could do was go over and take it
up with other barrack leaders. And when I got to
the office there were a couple of dozen other guys
standing on the steps, barrack leaders and the compound leaders
and also the chaplain saw them around.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Hello Pete, you too, are hi, Padre?
Speaker 7 (13:48):
Say what goes on here anyway?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Well, it's a strange and wonderful thing, Pete.
Speaker 13 (13:52):
Seems that four thousand GI's Catholics, Protestants and Jews are
suddenly all up in arms about a mass that most
of them weren't going to anyway. So He've asked to
come and down to meet us here everybody.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Huh uh huh.
Speaker 6 (14:07):
I thought it was only my guys. Hey, look here
he comes, drive an army and all.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Well, you asked to see me about what Captain.
Speaker 13 (14:19):
Marian Colonel it's about the mess. First you gave permission,
and now you've forbidden it.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Start point in the city. Forbid it.
Speaker 10 (14:28):
Too many men in one place.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Not why, but Colonel, the men are determined to go.
Speaker 7 (14:32):
So you tell them it is forbidden.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Excuse me, Colonel.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
They know it's forbidden, they know they might get shot,
but they're at the point right now.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Where they don't care.
Speaker 6 (14:41):
So if you want a few thousand corpses on your hands,
you're gonna get him.
Speaker 10 (14:44):
No, I want no trouble here.
Speaker 13 (14:46):
Then may I suggest that you asked to get stuff
out to reconsider very well?
Speaker 10 (14:51):
I will ask, but the answer will take time.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Captain. If it does not come before midnight, the.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Order must be enforced, regardless of the consequences.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
You will take your men they ought not will be enforced.
Speaker 13 (15:05):
Qua well, Padre, I don't know, boys. We could call
off the service, just close up the caple. But if
the men show up anyway, I think I'd better be
head ahead off trouble.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
You know, I just can't get over it.
Speaker 13 (15:24):
I mean, what crazy, contrary, unreasonable, stubborn, and still profoundly
wonderful characters Americans can be.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
I just can't get over it.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
Well, I went back to the barrack and breathed the
guys on what I'd heard. They listened and nodded and
said nothing. They hadn't changed their minds about going to
the mass just didn't want to argue about it. Barrek
thirty five b was really something to see. That night,
(16:01):
Nick and Miller had built us a beautiful tree made
out of branches fastened to a broomstick candle, and it
was decorated with gallons of white tissue, scraps of colored paper,
and spirals of tin from our powdered milk cans. And
on the very top there was an angel carved from.
Speaker 7 (16:17):
Soap fastened to a cardboard star.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
Yes, it was really something to say.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
Dinner time came and still no word from the commandant.
We had a fine Christmas eat dinner that night. The
spam was dried just right and the potatoes were boiled
to perfection. The dessert we each had three stewed prunes
and a slice of Blackies specially baked cake pretty good too,
whatever he made it out of.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
And then came the long awaited show.
Speaker 6 (16:54):
We had all kinds of acts, but what I remember
especially was Nick because he sang of.
Speaker 10 (16:59):
Home top of a small keys all covered with snow,
lost my true.
Speaker 9 (17:08):
Lover from Corky to slow.
Speaker 7 (17:12):
On top of a small.
Speaker 10 (17:17):
I went fairly.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
For of those horrid.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
We had comedians too, like the act that Hudd and
Blackie put on.
Speaker 11 (17:31):
As a charmante opacy Hosh was time to make an
honest living. And he'll come to New American prisoners. I'm
looking for the prisoner of war camp. If I come
to the right place. Oh, you do know creeks your language,
(17:54):
so happens, and I know every word of the Geneva
convention before from your intimate men. I wonder if I've
come to the right place. Well, anyway, take me to
the dining room. I'm hungry enough to eat a horse.
To eat a horse.
Speaker 9 (18:10):
Yes, yeah, you have come to the right place.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yes.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
It was a fine show, but under all the laughter
and applause, we knew that the men were still determined
to go to that mass. Come with me. It was
late when the show ended. We sat around quiet now
and exchanged Christmas presents with our best buddies. They were
(18:38):
strange gifts, some of them, but very precious in many ways.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Hey, hey, how do you like that a can opener?
Speaker 8 (18:45):
Hey, said, where'd you get it?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
This isn't the one you had?
Speaker 12 (18:50):
You just think I'm out of my head giving you
my only can opener.
Speaker 7 (18:54):
No I had an extra one.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Well fine, I mean thanks, thanks a lot. It's real
charming of your boy hair. Alright, got something for you. Hey, guys,
the time, that's almost twelve. Anybody interested?
Speaker 8 (19:11):
Yeah, yeah, I'm interested.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
Hey just a minute, hand, just a minute, fellas, now,
please give me a minute. I'll be brief, alright, So
right now, we never had it so bad. But we'll
get out of here, you know, we will if we
can just stay alive a little while longer.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Don't forget.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
We've got lives waiting to be lived.
Speaker 10 (19:37):
Back home, We've got we've got.
Speaker 6 (19:40):
Girls waiting, and and kids waiting to be born and raised,
and and houses waiting to be lived in warm houses
with with good.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Food on the table.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
Okay, Okay, you don't want any part of it, Okay,
so go on out.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Now and get yourself shut.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Guy might be right, you know, well maybe so Hey,
hey outside, look, Paul Marble. Guys from the other pirates
heading for the chapel.
Speaker 7 (20:11):
Okay, there's gonna be a mess. I'm gonna sink.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, let's go.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Jerry's wanna stop a few thousand of us Let him try.
Speaker 7 (20:19):
C Well, Pete, how about you?
Speaker 6 (20:25):
Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, I'm coming, let's go.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
The chapel was already jammed when we got there.
Speaker 6 (20:43):
There wasn't room for those who came after us, And
soon there were hundreds of guys outside, bunched around the
open doors and windows, standing hatless in the snow. Inside
up by the cardboard candle a altar somebody I couldn't
he began to play the wheezy old organ. The faces
(21:05):
around me were tight with determination and anxiety. Where were
the Jerrys. Why hadn't we run into any on our
way to chapel? Obviously they were laying low, But why
we didn't know?
Speaker 10 (21:18):
We were tense, afraid.
Speaker 6 (21:22):
Whatever Father Miran felt during that midnight lass, it didn't show.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
For him.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
The Jerry's and their barbed wire no longer existed. It
was Christmas and he was honoring the premise of peace.
And then from outside we began to hear something, and
a whisper starting among the men outside in the snow
swept inside the chapel. From man to man, memory's nerves
(21:49):
were a hair trigger.
Speaker 10 (21:50):
Attention, Jerry's, Jerrys are coming.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Okay, let him start something, didn't you?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
The Jerry's work coming.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
We could see them coming, so just across the snow,
rifles in hand. In a minute or two they were
at the champel, lodding. We held our breadth and waited.
Not a minimumus moved, but we were ready for anything.
Then Father Moran turned pleased to come and seemed to
(22:20):
give a nud to Sydney Millston.
Speaker 9 (22:24):
Ah and night ooly night all Is Calm, all Is Bride, Ramon,
the Ogent Moll, the rancher poly and so Ander and.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Min, I said, saying that age old him.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
The Jerry's pushed their way into the chapel, and overcrowded
as it was, gradually our prison place of worship was
filled with our gods and captors. I knew that one
of them was right behind me, but I didn't turn around.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yes, s.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
No licord.
Speaker 9 (23:26):
All shp.
Speaker 10 (23:33):
Hey listen, yeah, how do you like that?
Speaker 7 (23:45):
And then we knew the Jerry's weren't there to stop us.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
But to join us.
Speaker 6 (23:50):
In all our anger and fear, we'd forgotten one thing.
It was Christmas for them too, and Remembering this, we
began to sing.
Speaker 7 (24:00):
We all began to see.
Speaker 6 (24:14):
The sky seemed wonderfully clear that night as we walked
back to our barracks, and the stars strangely bright. We
didn't have to talk, because each man's thoughts were alike.
We knew now that the words we'd heard for so
long were really true, that Christmas isn't only an anniversary,
but a universal spirit of brotherhood, of.
Speaker 7 (24:36):
Peace and good will. And in realizing these things, we'd
lost our fear.
Speaker 6 (24:42):
We knew somehow that it wouldn't be long, that we'd
soon be free, that we'd soon be home. And we
knew too that this would always be the most memorable
Christmas of our lives.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Our thanks to Edmund O'Brien and the cavalcade players for
the Knight's true story Barbed Wire Christmas was written by
Warner Law in collaboration with David Gerber and was based
on mister Gerber's personal experiences in the German prison camp.
Original music for to Night's Upon Cavalcade was composed by
(25:50):
Arden Cornwell, conducted by Donald Bories. The program was directed
by John Zeller with our star Edmond O'Brien. You heard
Gary Wahlberg, George Peach, Read Bhil Zuckert, Ross Martin, Harry Jackson,
Ed Jerome Tonio, Selbert Kermit Murdoch, Danuco, and Nelson Omstead.
(26:11):
The Duponk cavalcad of America came to you tonight from
the Glasgow Theater in New York City and is sponsored
by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, makers of Better
Things for better living through chemistry.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Tonight just for Lass.
Speaker 7 (26:32):
Listen to Red Skelton on NBC
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