How Did Clickers Save Lives on D-Day?

Tiny, handheld boxes that make a sharp clicking noise saved countless American lives during the confusion of D-Day in WWII. Learn how they were used and what to do if you have one in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff.
Lauren Bogle bomb here. Shortly after midnight in the early
hours of June six, nearly twenty thousand, Allied paratroopers dropped
behind enemy lines to be the first soldiers on the
ground on D Day. Conditions were terrible. Thick cloud cover
and fog made it nearly impossible to spot their landing targets,

(00:24):
and the night sky was pierced with Nazi heavy anti
aircraft rounds and sniper fire. For those paratroopers who made
it to the ground, many were separated from their units
and unsure of their locations. Alone and enemy held territory,
they had to find their comrades and the fog blanketed
dark without tipping off the enemy. Good thing they had
their clickers hours earlier. When boarding the transport aircraft back

(00:45):
in England, members of the United States A hundred and
first Airborne Division were each handed a small metal box
that would serve as a low tech emergency communication device.
By pushing down on the lid of the box with
the thumb and releasing, it made a sharp clicking sound.
Their instructions were simple. If you're on the ground and
hear someone approaching click once, two clicks in reply means
a friend. No click could mean trouble. Twenty four hours

(01:09):
after landing, the paratroopers were told to ditch or hide
their clickers. Allied commanders were worried that the devices would
fall into Nazi hands and be used to trick Allied
soldiers into thinking that an approaching foe was friendly. The
D Day clickers were only in action for twenty four hours,
but who knows how many lives were saved by the
simple ingenuity. Inspired by the seventy anniversary of the D

(01:29):
Day invasion, this year, the British company that made those
original D Day clickers is on a search and rescue
mission of its own. Of the seven thousand clickers manufactured
by Acme Whistles during World War Two, less than a
dozen have been recovered. Now the company has launched a
worldwide campaign to find the lost D Day clickers and
learned the stories behind the brave troops who carried them.
We spoke with Ben McFarlane, the head of sales and

(01:50):
marketing at acmee Whistles, which still manufactures whistles in the
same Birmingham, England factory that took a direct hit from
Nazi bombers during the war. He says that the few
confirmed clickers in circulation are all held by museums and
private collectors. Acne Whistles itself doesn't possess even one of
the original clickers, although it sells an exact replica made
with the original machine presses. Just because there have been

(02:11):
so few recovered D Day clickers, it doesn't mean that
there are not more out there, McFarland said. It just
means that people don't know that they've got them. Acne
Whistles has been in business since eighteen seventy and is
responsible for a number of important whistle firsts. Its founder,
Joseph Hudson invented the first police whistle used by the
London Metropolitan Police. Prior to that, the bobby on the
beat used a wooden rattle. Hudson also invented the very

(02:34):
first sports whistle, the original Acme Thunderer. Before that, football
referees that's soccer to Americans in the UK waved a
white handkerchief to get the player's attention. Not quite as effective.
But back to the clickers. Since the clickers were exclusively
supplied to the US hundred and first airborne. McFarland expects
that many reside in America, either handed down as heirlooms

(02:55):
from generation to generation or in the hands of antiques
collectors who may not know the heroic providence of the
humble looking boxes. The day Day clicker, also known as
the acmee Cricket, was originally used by marching band leaders
to click out the tempo of piece of music. They're
made of brass and are half open rectangular boxes about
the size of the top joint of a thumb. By
half open, I mean that one short end and parts

(03:16):
of two walls are missing from the design. The remaining
short end is labeled with the ACME made in England.
If you think you're in possession of an original D
Day clicker, McFarland wants you to email him personally at
Ben dot McFarlane at Acme Whistles dot co dot UK.
He's already heard from at least one American woman who
appears to have the real deal. Acne Whistle's plans to

(03:36):
invite all clicker owners to England to take a tour
of the factory, receive an engraved commemorative whistle, and share
the story of the brave paratrooper who carried the clicker
into combat on D Day. Today's episode was written by
Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is
a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more
on this and lots of other topics designed to make

(03:58):
a very specific breckas, visit our home planet, how Stuffworks
dot com. And for more podcasts for my heart Radio,
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