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hats and apparel. Welcome to Softcore History. What is up? Welcome back
to Softcore History. I am your host for the week, Rob Fox.
As always, like we say at the top, please like the show on
Spotify and Apple podcast or whatever to leave a review, leave five stars,
write a review on Apple and then we have a Patreon Patreon dot com slash
softcore History for two extra shows a week. You pay five dollars a month
for two extraows a week, and the entire entire backlog is evergreen. Look
at you being so official and if efient. I know, well, that's
what I'm trying to do. Good time for Gabbin. No, I'm got
a special guest today. We do have a special guest today. That special
guest is not Jake. We told Jake there's only three chairs on the set
and if someone's leaving, it's you, buddy, And he protested, well,
he actually had to serve his term in the IDEF. Yes, he
is finally serving in the Idea. Well, he just volunteered to do it
again again. He saw Galgado be very passionate about Israel. The kind of
motivated him to go to go again. Yeah, so he's serving in the
Idea for another week. I think he'll be back next week. He uses
a lot of vacation time to do IDEF stuff. But instead of Jake,
we have a very special guest, a movie star from a number of films,
including a number of historical or like recent historical films. He's in Thirteen
Hours, he's in Captain Phillips, he's in The Great Raid, and most
importantly of all, for me, because it's my favorite movie that's ever been
made. I didn't actually want to tell you this because I do want to
seem like a fan girl all day. But saving Private Ryan, But now
he's gonna put you on the spot. Yea, we got Max Martini here.
Wow, what an intro. Thank you. It's happy to have you,
so hyped to have you. Thanks man. Good to be here.
Yeah, you've been here all day and I still you know, fanboy out
with the with the Private Ryan because that that was epic for me, probably
highlight of my career. You were just in like a murderers row of like
I feel like you check a lot of Hollywood boxes, like working with Spielberg
really every yeah, I know, yeah, early like out of the gate.
Yeah, yeah, it's kind of nice. How long you've been acting
with you? We early thirties, late twenties in that movie, Oh my
god, let's see, I was in my twenties. Um. It was
the second big film that I did. I did a movie called Contact,
Oh yeah, with Jodie Foster. First I was going through your IMDb trying
to pick out which films to highlight. Now, I gotta stick with roughly
the historical films because obviously there's fifty shades and yeah, yeah, we don't
talk about that that's not historically accurate or well the way I just realized,
I'm during Nicelobe Ultra on camera, which is uh, it's a beer for
that's what it is. Exactly, yeah, exactly. People just they're gonna
think you're a cyclist. That's right, It's fine. Whatever gets John running
your half marathon cooling down with a nice not a sponsor. By the way,
I wish that would be amazing. They have they have buckets of money.
Uh. At my wedding, they we had like we got I told
you earlier. I get married New Orleans. I get married at the Royal
like in the French Quarter or whatever, the hotel, and uh, we
get you have money, Like, well why not me? Uh? But
they're like, okay, so you're gonna have a little waiter. He's just
yours for the wedding. You're and your wife's okay, he's gonna be your
attendant for the whole wedding, and he'll bring you whatever he sees. You
don't have a beer or drink or whatever, he'll bring you a drink and
so what do you want him? Just to make it easy, you don't
have to re order every time what was your beer of choice based on the
menu from the bar or whatever? And I don't really drink mick ultra.
But I was like, man, this is gonna be a long fucking day,
and I probably shouldn't black out at my wedding, right, but I'm
gonna be like a little socially anxious because I got to talk to a million
people. So I was like, if I'm gonna drink a lot of beers,
I was like, just give me the four percent of Mick Alters all
night. Yeah, that's to drink a thousand. What he didn't say about
the stories, I was the beer boy. Actually he hired me to be
you were the guy. He was just like a buddy hiring a friend.
Yeah, and that still didn't pay. We just give m a meal.
That's a good buddy, by the way. Yeah. No, I actually
shot his uh rehearsal dinner and we were broke. So I was like,
I can't pay you, but do you just want I know you're so poor
that you're not gonna be able to afford to eat in New Orleans every night,
So would you like to just eat at the rehearsal dinner? Like you
can just be a rehearsaled because you wouldn't have made the cut otherwise. He
was not a fan of the final product though, because it was a horror
film trailer. He didn't made it seem like he killed his wife. My
god, he didn't give me any real footage. To this day, my
wife is like, you gotta play it. If you played it, we
could, I'll show you. It's fucking the worst. I'm still so mad
about that. That night was so fund and the only footage I have of
it as a trailer about me killing my wife's so funny. Man, fucking
that's what I get. I mean, I paid, I paid for what
I got, didn't pay me right exactly, so I got I got what
I deserved. Have you have you watched Private Ryan? Like, when was
the last time you saw it? A couple of years ago? Because so
when I was a kid, like it came out when I was in seventh
grade, saw in theaters. Been a huge history buff my whole life right
saw it in theaters. For me, I feel like I that movie to
me was like what people probably felt like when they saw like Star Wars for
the first time in a theater, you know where it's like the movie theater
just blows your brain out the back of your skull, Like you're like,
how the fuck did I just experience that type of thing? Because I had
my whole life have been a history buff. My grandparents were both in the
Second World War. My grandfather was in the Battle of the Bulge, and
Europe's like a big now a history buff. Or a World War two buff
at that point, No, because I was big because of the War two,
because the other movie a movie I watched constantly as a kid, both
because my dad was a big history weapon because it was just on cable all
the time, with Gettysburg that fucking you know, five hours on TNT every
Saturday. But as a white man, you have to you usually gravitate towards
one, right, like World War Two, the Civil War, the Romans.
You know, you can generally only pick one. I do think if
I had to go overall, I would go Civil War over World War Two.
But in terms of like, there's never been a Civil war movie to
me that has like captured it amazingly. Like the acting in Gettysburg is excellent,
but the combat scenes I think are not that great. I mean,
saving Private Ryan kind of ruined almost everything. My question still hold up.
Oh yeah, in a long time, I need to rewatch it. Is
it is. Spielberg has this amazing ability to make films that hold up over
films made like fifteen years after Jurassic Parks the Past example, where like somehow
the monsters still hold up better in that movie than in newer stuff. But
no, Private Ryan, It's so if you had told me, if you
didn't, if I didn't know the names, like who the actors were or
anything, if I just had my memory wiped and you had told me that
movie was made yesterday, I would believe it. Yeah, Like, there's
nothing in it. There's nothing aged in it at all. The battle sequence,
the over the beach, Yeah, unbelievable. Well, I think it's
one of the things I wanted to talk about before we talk about specifically your
parts in this scene. But so you're in the last like what forty because
you play Corporal Henderson, who is one of the I think actually the at
that point, the commander of the town of the unit, because you'd been
so decimated. But you're in the final battles, which to me gets so
overlooked because the beach scene is a so memorable, but be you just get
punched in the mouth flick right away. Yeah, and then so you you
kind of spend the rest of the movie thinking like, what the fuck did
I just see the battle Wise you sort of blown your load at the beginning,
right right kinda, I mean, but it definitely hooks you, It
gets you in the foot. You're invested after that oh yeah, um,
but yeah, I play uh, you know, Matt Damon's commanding officer basically
from the point that you find him through to the end of the film.
But um, you know, I remember shooting my death scene in Spielberg was
like, I think this is the most gruesome thing I've ever shot, you
know, at that point. But but uh really just I mean to be
part of that man and and uh and we were all newbies, you know.
It was like, yeah, Matt Damon had Goodwill Hunting coming out,
which hadn't come out yet. Um, Vin Diesel was a newbie, Giovanni
Rabizi, Barry Pepper, all these guys, Adam Goldberg. I think we
were all, you know, kind of starting out. I mean I think
Ed Burns and Tom Sizemore than I like even remotely with Yeah, yeah Tom
Max obviously, but yeah, now did did did? Uh? Did?
Um? Oh? God? Cheers helped me? Ted dance and did he
pull you out of the movie? That was my only complaints. I was
like dancing doing here. It was that was odd. I don't know if
like his age, if him and Spielberg just had like a chummy night out
in Hollywood. One night is it We're the ten dance and now reminds me
of just a curb I know, he's only curb now he's curb ted dancing
to me well and good place. It's like he cucked Larry David out.
But it's it's interesting you know that that like he pulls you out a bit
like I Actually it was one of my first lessons and you know, kind
of surviving in this business. If I wanted to be part of these historical
movies, was like, not do anything that was so identifiably me that I
couldn't be part of other historical films. You know, so I like a
superhero. Well, I mean it was more like, you know, I
got offered a big Gillette campaign and I was like, there's a lot of
money, but I can't what is the best a man can get? So
right? I mean like if if you were watching a film and all of
a sudden there's a sex scene with the male character and he's like a hot
sex scene and he's fucking flow from progressive right, it doesn't that seems not
gonna work, and he's not gonna I mean, Sharon was in an episode
of Game of Thrones singing him come on, it's got agregious, like at
least with um, what the fuck Aaron Rodgers and then the Mets pitcher know
us, they hit Art, they hit them pretty well. Yeah. But
yeah, like Ed Shearing's Thront and Center, you're gonna muse like a whole
fucking song right for three minutes. It would have worked if they had killed
him horrifically in that scene. Yeah, that would have been. But not
because I don't like Ed Sheeron, but just because it's the same of Thrones
does that to you? Right? Um? Which actually, so that was
one of the things I want to ask you about. So when the two
things people Night might know you from in this movie, specifically from the Last
Battle, which I think is massively under it. Me and my friends were
all hooked on it and we were like, man, that liked everyone loves
D Day, but that last battle is fucking dope because there's way more D
Day. They're just basically running right there, run, but there's like tactics
and it's and the beginning is like oh yeah, and you don't know the
when you hear the tanks rumbling in the distance, you don't see anything like
I got like nervous. Yeah, that that made me nervous. It was
it was crazy. But where's in D Day. You don't know what's about
to happen until it happens, yea. The lead up to everything is so
cool. But so the two things people might remember you from in those scenes
specifically is uh a you sharing gum with Adam Goldberg. Everybody brings that up
hilarious and that was improvised, so that I was wondering. Spielberg was like,
give him your gum? How many times? How many times did you
have to do a lot? A lot? And at least it's not the
other way around, right, yeah, right exactly? Um, you know,
uh no, I ate his gum. I took his gum. Yeah,
so you know, we didn't talk about it after that, just let
that were you just like you're clean, right, We're good, Adam.
He's like, yeah, it's fine. But yeah, I was wondered that,
Like, like I was watching the movie. I was like, I
mean, I hope that was one take for for Maxis. Wasn't it the
longest scene of your life, the longest scene of my life? Like we
need another take? No, by the way, they were like, I
mean, poor Adam Goldberg. I guess he didn't really suffer in that one,
but he kind of got abused with the gum too. I wonder how
many times they made Tom Hanks stick his finger in his mouth in the things
you can't pull it out like so that that was like a recurring theme with
whatever you want, mister Spielberg. Whatever was that pretty? Would you?
What? What even goes to your mind when you walk on set with it?
And you said that was not You hadn't been in many big roles of
that part big movie that well A contact was big. Yeah, yeah,
Contact was big. But when I got big director too, it's simachus yeah
yeah. But when I got to I shot in London. Um, we
shot on an airfield. I honest to god, I didn't know what to
expect. Man and I and we started walk walking to the set. It
basically, Um, the walk to set, all you could see were the
backs of the facades, right so that whole town, yeah, where there
was all facades, And once you passed through the one of the openings,
you saw that entire town built, like every stone was brought in, the
bridge, the river, everything was built. And I was like, oh
my god, a minute, you know, like this is this is this
is big, This is big. Does that make it easier? It made
it. It was as opposed to like being in I don't know if you've
done Emily this, but you know, like the Marvel guys in Atlanta.
You see the scene sets and it's like they're on one little mound and then
everything. Dude, it's it. It was so big that it made it
easy. Like because as an actor, you know your work is selling that
what your your your surroundings in the environment and the situations. Right, But
when you have that much that's already given to you, really stepping on set,
you're like, you're in it. It doesn't take any work to believe
it. You know. Suddenly like all these guys are dirtied and bloody,
and you know, and and and in the acting was so good in that
film. Yeah, the minute you're you're in an interaction with somebody, you're
you're invested. I mean, it truly was like one of the easier jobs
that I've done, and interesting enough, like when I auditioned for it,
I was like, I'm never gonna get this. I'm never ever gonna get
this, So I kind of went in and threw it away. Yeah,
and my agent was like, you got it. I was like, what,
because, I mean, you have quite a few lines in the last
I mean because he's you essentially are are Tom Hanks is like point of contact
because you're the two commanders. Yeah, and you're kind of giving a situation
assessment of the uh what the fuck you guys like Ammo and stuff that you
have left. Yeah, I mean it wasn't one of the huge, huge
leads, but it was. It was a pivot rule character and you know,
and and I had moments that stud that you know stood up in the
film and you know, and uh yeah, man, just awesome to be
part of it. It's it's that's super cool to me. So one thing,
so we talked about the gum and that's like a little thing that people
might remember. But the one thing, the scene you were in that probably
everyone remembers is one of the three worst death scenes I've ever seen on film.
Not yours, but you were in the scene and you were already dead,
I guess by the time the stabbing scene of Melish the only there's only
three times in my life I watched something and been I don't want to like
say trauma specifically, like therapy speak, but like that where I've been like
oh oh, oh my god. Yeah, it was intense. It was
That's what That's what Stephen was like it this is I've never shot anything like
that. It was, I mean, and he had done h Schindler's Jurassic
Park doesn't have the nicest deaths in it, but I mean that's more.
But like the whole sequence in the apartment, it was like up them we
sent I think I think it was that character we sent him for Amo.
Yeah, and then the German guy comes up. We think, we don't
know if it's up him or not. And then we hear I think we
hear his weapon or something, and I fire into the wall and he drops.
The blood comes around the door. Yeah, and then I get shot
in the throat and they're basically wrestling on top of the literal till I die.
Yeah. All he's getting stabbed, keeping trying to keep blood in your
throat. They're wrestling over you. Yeah. How so with that scene too,
like how many times? How is that? How many? How many
different like time like ways did they have to shoot that? You know what
I mean? Because there's a sequence where they roll over you and they're doing
shit and then you're dead and they're I mean, like, how many that
had to be more than a day, right that you were doing that?
Or oh no, I think we shot that whole scene in an afternoon.
But um, but you know, I mean talking about typecasting, like I,
you know, one, we know I play a lot of soldiers,
but it's like I die at least that violent and everything that I do now
like apparently, Um, but no, I think that was an afternoon And
you know, what was even kind of wild to me at the time had
been people probably maybe haven't picked up on it, was that the body that
was getting stabbed, so Adam Goldberg was actually standing in a hole in the
floor or did you know this? So I I did not know this,
but I always thought in that scene and it didn't doesn't take me out of
it because it's so horrible. He does such a good job acting in it,
but I always thought, like, his head's a little bit of weird
act. It's a little weird angle. Yeah, yeah, it's funny you
picked up on that I did, but um, but yeah, so he's
standing in a hole and then they have a fake body laying on the floor
and his sort of chest. Uh you know is what's sticking out selling.
Yeah, I mean that it's literally that. Uh have you seen Bone Tomahawk?
No, it's a Western with Kurt Russell, Um, Matthew Flox from
Loss. It's like a wet horror Western, and it's about these Indians that
are just like you've seen it, have you? No? You keep good
lord, you keep coming after me and Jake for dude, it's fucking wild.
So it's these with these Indians that are like troglodytes. I mean,
they're like Neanderthal Indians, but it's an Old West movie and they just like
they're cannibals. They're fucking psychopaths. Anyway, that won't ruin that death for
you. Yeah, there's a death of that that is horrifying. And then
have you have you seen Game of Thrones? So when when Oberon Martell's skull
is crushed by the mountain, that the first thing I thought when his skull
got crushed was that's the worst thing I've seen since Melish. Yeah, and
then I saw Bone Tomahawk a bit after that. I got really hungry for
watermelon for some reason. Oh, mellish, that's what Yes, Okay,
when you were saying, melish, I didn't put it together, that's right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Adam Goldberg. Yeah, but
man, like those that scene, So were you that was a that was
a tight shot when he was being stabbed. So were you still around there
or were you kind of yeah, I think I was. I think I
was behind him at that point, uh, in the in the scene dead
yeah, yeah, laying there? Were you at any point? Were you
just thinking like, man, this is wild or was it kind of like
it? It was every second was just wild wild, and it was cool.
It was like, you know, uh, he just you know the
Spielberg. I remember like one time, this will give you an idea how
as to the scale of this film. But one time he raped because there
was I think a tank fired into a body that exploded. But when that
happened, they had the Special Effects department wire explosives all through this town,
so on action, all these explosives were going off. The tank was coming
through, he fired into this body. The body blows up, but it
didn't go well, and he goes, all, I bring in another body
and they were like, we only have one and he went what and I
mean and everybody just shrunk, right, but but the choreography involved in making
that film, like so many departments, so many levels, so many different
elements wire act. Dude, it's just he's uh and this is why he's
Steven Spielberg, right right, Yeah, Now you you produced and directed well
a little bit. Yeah, how what did you? Had you been directing
it all at that point or I hadn't. So is there anything to look
back on because you've worked with again, you've worked with the magazine with Spielberg.
Yeah, I mean I take something, you know, from all of
these directors and and uh, you know somebody that like, for instance,
why wasn't a war film, but like Germo del Toro, I'd a movie
for right, amazing to watch work, bay very technical, amazing to watch
work. So like when I finally did my movie, you know, I
had this kind of like all these influences and in different elements that I'd taken
from all the different guys and and learned from you know. So you know,
it's in a way it kind of beats going to film school because I'm
I'm in side by side with like the best in the business and being directed
by being directed by these guys, and so it can't help, but rub
off, you know, counterpoint. Let me show you my student film or
the right of the wedding video. I really do want to see that.
Yeah, please shout. Actually, Dan, your first role ever was a
rapist. I was student. Well, actually this on my first role.
My first role was auditioning to be a child actor. Oh yeah, but
my parents kept trying to push me into it. And when I told them
the story, like you said, I don't think I got it. I
was very right about it, and it was people forget it was actually for
the child and Ai. Yeah it was Spielberg movie as well. Really no,
no, no, it was a It was a shamant film though who
was actually signs? Wasn't it really was signed? Wait? Were you can?
You weren't trying not for the Holkin part, right, I'm just trying
out for the kid part whatever the kid part was? So? Uh is
that? No, that's not the that's not the one Colkin in succession.
That's the other Coulkin and not mcaulay, not the succession whatever the other one
is. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, dude, you never
had a shot. If Rory Colkin got the part, you never had a
shot. My parents believed in me, this was like a This was like
a like a show, you know what I mean, Like when an NFL
like brings in one black coach and then don't hire them. Yeah, but
they're like, oh, we did the Rooney rule, like it was never
gonna be Yeah, you were just like the token poor kid that they let
try out. To this day, it still haunts me. Think you're your
life could have it. Yeah, it's cool. I went home seven lashes
with the belt for Catholics here, so it's you know that works. It
does work. Yeah. Um but man, I so on one other thing
I want to ask about the same prior ryme before we get into this week's
topic is um, I think my I have a theory on this, and
I wonder if you experienced it at all having been in the film and then
just obviously you were probably more fairly hyper focused on how the film was doing
because it was such a big production and you know, you're young actor.
Um. I think that Saving Private Ryan, maybe almost accidentally, is one
of the most influential films of the last like forty years. And I'm just
saying this is my favorite film because I don't think it's the best movie of
all time or anything, but like all the shit, Hey, I think
people forget how much of a cultural phenomenon it was at the time. I
mean, it had a rerelease, it was the highest grossing film of the
year. It's arguably the biggest Oscar upset in history, losing to Shakespeare and
love. Did you react to that at all? Were you just like whatever?
Whatever? Yeah, pretty much. I remember I remember watching it as
a kid and being like what the fuck? Like it was like it was
like one of my sports teams lost. I was like a doctor. Fuck.
Uh. But I mean, were you what did you? Did you
kind of feel that cultural impact because I mean it inspired obviously like being a
brother stuff like that, but then it inspired like people don't realize, like
video games, the video game series like Call of Duty was on the heat
that was created, on the heels and the sort of warfare because there's an
entire I think Metal of Honor two had that entire opening scene from seven Prevarn
just day. Know everybody uses that shaky photography now for the for the you
know, I think it's it's massively. It completely and immediately influenced every war
film right after. Dude. You know, I'll share something personal with you.
It really changed my life, Like yeah, it in a way that,
um, I grew up, I found myself. I actually, you
know, became an adult on that film. I was because I was I
got hired at twenty early twenties. Um, but I had, you know,
uh, no conception really of what that generation of soldier went through,
what that war. You know, that the scale, the battles that I
mean, it was, it was it was very enlightening for me. And
and I walked away, Uh just such a supporter of our troops that put
their lives on the line in that in that manner, man, I mean
it was just And you know, one of the things that I you know,
I was telling Ross the other day is that, um, you know,
we did the we did the premiere, and Spielberg invited all these veterans,
right, and they're all ninety and in the pre party they're all hitting
on my wife at the time, like you know, I got they're all
drug and they're all you know, and uh but great guys. And and
we were sitting in the theater and we're watching that first that scene, and
I was mesmerized. Man, you haven't seen that. I hadn't seen it.
Yeah, and I looked over at these guys that were sitting next to
me, and they were all just frenched in tears, right, And that
moment was so impactful for me. Man. And and you know, there
was an interesting article that came out after the release of that film talking about
how it inspired all these guys to open up about their experiences during combat,
you know, and it started a conversation that they'd been sitting on for years
and he was healing. Grandfather not that he would talk to a third grader
about it, but now from everyone whatever, and told me, aside from
my grandmother a couple of times, never talked about it. My grandfather sat
me down when I was seven after I watched that movie, and he's just
like, yeah, this was it. After the movie. After the movie,
Yeah, I was seven. He wasn't even in World War Two.
He's in Korea. But he's like, ives, yeah, same thing.
What are you doing? Korea fixed plains? He said. He played a
lot of basketball. Actually, military said the best time in his life.
He got drafted by the Dodgers and then he got drafted by the Army,
so he joined the Air Force's Yeah, I really think that movie like the
most revolutionary thing about that movie is that it really I think it was the
first I can recall because I've seen a million more movies, it's the first
movie I can recall in terms of timeline that uh, it kind of just
and it does it from the first moment of shot is fired. It treats
American soldiers like pieces of meat, which no movie everyone's a hero in the
other movie, and the sort of it's like, no, no, everyone's
not a hero because they're a hero. Everyone's a hero because like look at
this, Look at this man picking up his arm on the back, like
look at this fucking nightmare that they're going through. They were they really,
I mean and even inaccurate, right, we got slaughtered on that beach.
Yeah, yeah, and that you never saw that before, even in movies
that were brutal like um uh, Full Metal Jacket or Platoon, when someone
died, it was even if they died violently, it was still like this
like glorified a little bit. It was glorified a little bit. Or it
was like this character died and that the first people you see die there there
are there are boys in blue so to speak or whatever, and they are
just discarded like garbage. And but but that's how it's I mean, but
that's important to be like, dude, these like the universe didn't care about
the I know you care about these people, but the universe didn't care about
the people. They were going up against pure violence, and that what makes
them hero. It's not them being like come on, buy over the hill
like that that they had to walk into, right, It's not like an
army recruitment video. Literally, Yeah, And I thought, I think that
to me is the most revolutionary thing that I think. It's the first film
that I like, I remember ever seeing that. It was just like,
here's like, this is the actual violence they dealt with. Yeah, and
you were one of those people. You got one to the neck. Ye
took it to the neck, right to the neck. So they shot they
shot that your death from sort of the like from the side on the back.
It was like the back inside. Did you just have like a blood
pack on the other side of your neck? Yes, they will. I'm
trying to think if they how do we do the blood in the back of
the neck, because I remember it's sprayed and then I had like a sponge
soaked in blood that I was squeezing while I was holding my neck. Practical
effects. And I don't use this my life now. I told you I
like this in every film, but now there just like, hey, follower,
stick your tongue out, we'll fix it in put now yea, in
every movie? Now, do you challenge the director to kill you in a
more intense way? I don't even need to challenge you on like they're looking
forward to, like who's somebody? I just who do we want to destroy?
Yeah? Max Martini? Right now, um, speaking of dying horribly,
that's what our topic is. And in honor of you playing a paratrooper
in World War Two, uh in D Day, we're going to talk about,
uh, a little bit of some stuff, some some not so great
things some paratroopers went through, um the night of D Day. So one
thing I assume our audience knows. I assume, you know, having literally
played a paratrooper and whatnot. Don't assume for me, I don't I never
do, No, no, no, no, maybe not? What?
Yeah? Is that? So people? A lot of people realize this,
Dan, I guess hasn't the airborne drops the June night of June fifth to
kind of pre set the table for the beach landings, a lot of misdrops.
In fact, that's one of the main plot points to sit in Private
ryans. We have no fucking idea where Private Ryan is because the soldiers,
believe it or not, the battle didn't go exactly according to plan. You
get a gust of wind literally yeah, and I mean planes. I don't
know that. I think the I think the C forty seven pilots that dropped
the paratroopers, a lot of them were kind of nubes or I don't know
if they just got nervous, but the flak or the flak was thicker than
they thought, but they kind of freaked out and started hitting green lights before
they were supposed to. Guys were jumping out of the planes before they were
supposed to because the anti aircraft was so intense and stuff like that. So
all these paratroopers that night got dropped everywhere. And that's the main plot point
of the second episode of Band of Brothers as well, is that it's like
fuck, dude, Like I mean, because they had a very specific plan,
very specific targets of course, you know, and all this stuff.
But you know, what's the saying, um whatever, you whatever, your
plan doesn't survive first contact with the enemy essentially, and a coach and there.
So there's misdrops everywhere, and um, you know, there's whole books
written about this, entire books written about all the misdrops in Normandy and all
that stuff. But there's two in particular that really fascinate me for just how
unfortunate they were. Um, there was like just it doesn't get any more
like shitty luck than then these guys had, because a lot of them were
just misdropped and they ended up in a field, or a couple of them
unfortunately ended up in the Germans had smartly flooded certain fields, so they drowned
in some of these. I have a question for you, just just because
so I to skydive. Yeah, so when when uh, when we spot
you've got a guy hanging out the plane right and it's all visual right yeah,
and then you signal to the pilot, the pilot slows down, everybody
pilots out. How How I mean is that essentially the same way they were
spotting back then. I think the pilots were a bit more in control because
the pilots were spot Yes, yeah, I think there was a guy at
the door taking a look, but when the pilot hit the green light,
it was time to go. Yeah, and so a lot of the and
uh so a lot of these guys that was happening too. Also, Um,
the door on the C forty seven, it's not really accurate to call
it a door because a door implies that something closes. Yeah, it was
just a fucking right. So a couple of these planes doing evasive maneuvers just
accidentally dropped guys out. Well, um, I mean it was, believe
it or not, a fucking mess. No countdown, yeah, no countdown
yeah. Um. I mean there as I was reading stories doing research for
this, where I that I hadn't seen before were like guys were like about
to jump and then would like slip on someone's puke from because they were so
nervous on the or or something like that. Just gnarly ship. So there
were two. There were a couple of drops in particular that went you know,
a lot of misses, but these two were just horribly missed. And
why they were horribly missed is because these paratroopers were dropped right into the middle
of two towns occupied by Germans. Oi was occupied by Germans, but these
guys were dropped like on City Hall basically full and the town's full of Germans.
These towns were Saint Mary Dumont and Saint Mary Glees. Um, say,
Mary Glees, I think I'll get to it. But one of them
is is famously portrayed in Uh. I don't know if you've seen the old
World War two movie The Longest Day, that D Day film Black and White,
John Wayne fucking a young Sean Connery. Um, there's a same Mary
Glees I think is portrayed in that. But so the drop were horrible.
Actually one of these, one of the drop zones was drop Zone C that
had a lot of misses, and that was where the band of Brothers Company
Easy Company was supposed to go. But we're not talking about them. They
were they were better off than these guys. So the first one I'll talk
about a little bit, as Saint Marie Dumont, it was occupied by sixty
Germans. However, these weren't infantry, just sixty Yeah, I know,
right, come on, bro Leo Major took care of that. Can't handle
sixty. Well, they weren't even they weren't even infantry, right, These
were this is behind the lines like a couple miles behind the lines. So
they were occupied by sixty sixty Germans from one hundred and ninety first Artillery Regiment.
So the Germans were there in Saint Marie Dumont, specifically because Dumont it's
on a little bit of a hill and there's a large church tower, great
spotting tower. They could see the beach, they could see the ocean,
they can see everything. So it's a great place to put your artillery regiment,
get spotters up in the tower. Blah blah bla so, and it
was like right behind utub Each which is one of the landing spots. So
due to all the aforementioned bullshit, all the flak and the pilot's not really
known what's going on and just people falling out and everything, these guys get
dropped over the wrong area, I believe, just a little early. They
essentially the pilots flipped the green light too early. I think they maybe they
just want to get the fuck out of there, I don't know. So
they fall directly into the middle of the town. One paratrooper who had maybe
the worst and then best luck in the span of like a couple hours.
I guess maybe last was Ambrose Alley. So he hit a roof in the
town, and because he had a giant parachute attached to him, he was
pretty conspicuous, especially and also because the sky was completely a light like it
wasn't dark. Yeah, there was tracers all over the sky, explosions everywhere.
It's like the literally every every every person who, every veteran was basically
it was literally the fourth July, like it was just like you had been.
The Germans were like, oh, it's a hobbyist, right, yeah,
right, it's a weird time to do this. It's like, actually,
it's like the scene from the Sandlot where they're playing baseball at night.
He's just so bright that you can see fucking anything. So he lands on
this roof slides down. Because he's very conspicuous, five German soldiers immediately run
up to him take him prisoner. After being prisoner of the Germans for a
couple of hours, the Germans are like, all right, I don't know
what's going on. This has been a crazy night. They got a couple
other guys too, like this knight has been fucking crazy. Fuck this we're
Nazis. Let's just go out and kill him. So they take Ambrose and
a couple other guys out line them up on a wall, step back,
rifles up, ready to shoot out, pops a few more paratroopers, and
they just light these Nazis up get out last second, like literally from the
sky. No I wish they were just floating down, but now they just
popped out from around a corner. Light all these Nazis UPO Ambrose survives,
goes on to continue fighting in the war and whatnoight, but I mean literally
seconds. Yeah, so this is his account of what happened. Yeah,
wow, seconds from death. People turn the corner at the exact right second.
Boom m um, yeah, I was, I mean not ideal crazy.
Uh one, this one's less. This one doesn't have such a happy
ending because I guess these artillery guys are really not fucking around. I don't
know why. The artillery you would think would be a little more chill than
than the than the battle hardened infantry. Uh. Definitely a cushy job.
There's actually I read a letter from definitely not like the troops in World War
One. We're like, oh, you're a sky man. We're a fellow
sky man. Yeah right, come sky plus piano song Sky man, Well,
the artillery guys have like a night job. They just get to chill
in the back and shoot. I mean they're in the military, they're veterans.
They not the Nazi. I mean not that the Nazis difference back,
but like you know, they're still serving and everything. But like they they're
not, as Dan would say, gunfighters right there they are, and they're
not support like they're doing combat things, but they're behind the lines. Yeah.
So for whatever reason, I don't I don't know why the artillery guys
were like this. Oh I was gonna say, is I read a letter
it's a safe job too. I read a letter from the Mexican American War
about how some sister, some sister wrote a letter to her brother. She
was just furious with them because they were rich and he could have gotten a
cushy job in the artillery, but he wanted to prove himself. Man joined
the infantry instead, And she was like, what the fuck is wrong with
you? Are you kidding me? You could have gotten any job you wanted.
You could have been a can And if you want to kill people,
I know that what like that? They chose to, you know, take
the more dangerous. Yeah, oh yeah, I'm sure. Uh, one
parachute stick, which I don't I don't remember what a stick quite like a
squad basically, I guess, Um, just a couple of guys dropped directly
onto a German battery that was manned. So just all of them just fell
into a little area. And these are round canopies. They just go down
right, they can steer it a little bit. Yeah, it's not certainly
not like a skydiver now, but they can go into like a slip and
stuff like that from what I read. Um, But yeah, certainly not
because one guy complained, he was like, there's nothing I could do to
not drop into this water because there was no wind. Really, so they
don't. Yeah, they don't have quite the control that um. So most
of them were killed. Some of these guys were taken prisoner and tortured by
the artillery men a parent who just I guess quit their artillery job for the
night and started torturing these guys. Uh. The five hundred and second Parachute
Infantry Regiment UH radio man for General Taylor who commanded the whole one hundred and
first UH George Coska make Moki a pull lock um that's all I he uh,
he said as much. He was like, yeah, I landed nearby
and all I I just heard screams all goddamn night from that battery. That's
I don't know what they were doing. They found mutilated bodies in the morning,
but they these guys just landed on it, and the artillery guys were
like, all right, let's be psychopaths. But the rest of the fucking
night, Um, I mean happy ending that I think they eventually got killed
at least semi happy ending, but um yeah, that another different war.
These guys weren't fun. Nobody was fucking around. They don't play it like
stuck in the middle with you as they torture him whatever. The German version
of that is unsphind on Hi. Yeah, uh real quick, Max,
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of these guys, by the way, in Normandy, these German guys were,
um, I don't know if this artillery unit was, but they were
essentially Norman There were nothing was supposed to happen in Normandy. They were not
going to be an invasion there that they thought. They come to Kyla,
which is as close to you know, England and fucking France right here,
been almost touching. Normandy's out of the way. There's no deep water port
there, so they had defenses. Of course, you can't not defend it,
but um, a lot of these guys in Normandy, the Germans were
essentially on break, like on a soft break. They were dudes from the
Eastern Front who had gotten rotated out just to get a breather because whatever nightmares
happened here, the Eastern Front was fucking horrifying, you know what I mean.
So thesegether like, take a break, get a breather. Even supposed
to war today, I don't right, Like, God, damn it,
I'm taking it out on you. Um. So one paratrooper landed near the
center of Same or Dumont. I forget they I don't. I don't know
if they gave his name or not. But he somehow was not spoted right
away, and he was able to hide behind some little water pump, and
I guess the Germans just never realized he was there, despite the bodies that
were piling up, and every time a German want to run by, he
would just shoot them. So there's just a little ant pile in the middle
of the town square. Germans like, that's weird. Better keep running,
just get another one. But Sat Marie Dumont was unfortunately nothing compaid compared to
some are Glees, which was another town that the paratroopers were dropped directly into
the middle of, and it had even more Germans in it, because I
think it was a bit more of a tactical strategic target. It was.
Saint Marie Dumont is just kind of there, you know, like there's it's
it's a it's useful for the Germans to spot. It's not necessarily same.
I think same are Glees is more of a causeway to get the troops up
from the beach and through to get really going through France. By the way,
these towns Normandy seems like such a big situation because it's such a huge
undertaking. Right I Google mapped it. These towns are a ten minute from
each other, right right next to each other, but it takes that much
time to fight over a ten minute drive's worth of land, days and days
and days. Absolutely crazy. So same air Glees was I believe one of
the targets that the Dons in Banda Brothers were initially supposed to take on what
do you call it, on d Day or whatever. But so earlier in
the night before the drops had even happened, like much after sundown, but
much earlier, the town had been the target of an aerial attack. Obviously
the Allies or doing their thing, doing their pre bombing, whatever the attack,
during the attack, whatever they were trying to hit, not that they
were you know now that there's a lot of precision bombing in this day.
But even for that that they accidentally had a stray incendiary bomb the Allies did,
and it hit a random house in the same air Glees house caught fire.
This ended up not being great for the paratroopers because the fire was bad
and the town uh didn't have a fire department, so the fire department was
everyone in the town, the town. Yeah. So they get someone runs
to the mayor's house and they're like, Mayor, I forget the name of
the family, but like, this family's house is on fire. Can you
ask the Germans to let us break curfew and go put this fucking fire out,
this huge fire on this house. It could spread blah blah blah.
So the mayor goes to the German Uh it's not even the common common outs
of sleep, you know. But he goes to the sergeant who's in charge
at the time, and he's like, hey, house is on fire,
as it cool if we put the fire out? And the Germans like,
yeah, whatever, but they do the Germans, yeah, but that's fine,
you know, put your fire out, soft defense, little boys,
and uh, this is the everybody that does in German accident. It's that
voice. It's it's the same voice. Yeah, oh yeah, it's I
preferred. It's like the sprockets Mike Meyer, right, would you like to
touch my monkey? Exactly? I love that so much. One of my
one of my angriest things that ever happened to me doing theater in high school
was, uh, we did stalic seventeen as a play in my senior year.
Then I was so excited because, like I told you, it's a
history buff I love. He was just really excited to war the Nazi unit.
No, I wasn't. And that's the thing. I look good in
it. I looked good in it. I won't deny that. But because
it's Hugo boss and it's you know, it was yeah, it's it fits
me. But I was I really wanted to play an American soldier. I
loved the movie Stalic seventeen and Um, but I was one of only two
dudes who could do a German accent. And Sergeant Schultz, one of the
characters in stal seventeen and the other guy, smartly piece of shit, Um
acted like he couldn't do it German. They're like my theater director was like,
all right, do your German accent, Dan, and Dan was like
not this damn different Dan. Dan was like Akanda, like just the worst
fucking thing. And I was like, I know you could do one,
dude, fuck you, I've heard it. And then I am like,
I can't fake it. Because he didn't want to be in the play.
No, he didn't want to be the German, you know, because he
got more lined. I have to remember those tactically a good one. Yeah,
he got more lines is an American, right right right? So I
was like, what do you do it? Like? I just and they're
like and so I was the only one that could do a German accent.
By the way, as I am now forever in my senior year yearbook in
a Nazi uniform. Like I like, there's a yearbook sitting in my high
school to this day. The Nazi we gotta post that and can give no
context. I have posted it before him, and like, I hate how
handsome I am in this. It's a good uniform terrible people, but it
doesn't mean it dress well reliables as well. Continue because that's so interesting,
man. Actually, what I was funny really about the uniform before I get
us is that when the Americans liberated Paris, so the Germans marched out of
Paris, you know, still very dressed up and tight or whatever, and
then Americans came in and the French are like, who are these hoboes?
Because Americans don't give a fuck, right, we're you know, hair is
all ship. They look like you guys, I mean, yeah, they
look like you guys and same rab Ryan, like you just walked out of
combat, you know what I mean. You you were not in parade dress.
And so all these French people were like these guys, beat those guys
the fuck. Uh So the house is on fire. The French are putting
it out. The Germans are just kind of there. It's the like Germans
who drew the ship duty, right, they're on night watch. They're on
night duty. So they're just like out there smoking cigarettes. Like when the
fuck is this? Fuck these people's houses so fuck whatever, and um so
then the drop happens. It is you know how I said it was bright
in the other town. Well, add the fourth of July fire, add
the huge fire tooth that is currently taken over the town. It looks like
it's fucking daytime, right, And unlike in Saint Marie Dumont, where it
was like some guys got dropped and it was spreadic whatever, Like twenty guys
got dropped right next to the fire, onto the fire, where all one
dude did get dropped into the fire. So the heat sucked his parachute into
the inferno. He was carrying a fair amount of ordinance, so he got
sucked into the inferno, and then I guess, happily for him, exploded.
I mean he wasn't it was not a fire you were gonna walk like
to be able to run out of or jump out of a window. He
hadn't even gotten out of his shoot yet or anything. So yeah, he
got sucked into the fire. All the other Germans by the way, So
these Germans on ship duty right or watching this, and then all of a
sudden, people are like, oh the fuck. And the Germans look up
and they're just like they watched for a second, smoke, yeah, yeah,
they're also everybody spunk, right, They're just like what the fuck.
And then they look a little close and they realize these are fucking not Germans,
and they just start like oh shit, like pull their rifle off.
They're like they're pulling their rifles and you know, MP forties or whatever off
their shoulders, sending someone to go tell the sergeant who's on night duty,
like night watch whatever. It's like fuck, fuck, fuck, and um
they just start shooting at these sitting ducks who they themselves can't get there.
Either their guns or whatever got blasted off in the in the jump because uh,
you're so you skuydie right, you said. Yeah. So I don't
know if you know this about the paratroopers, but um, like I said,
the C forty seven pilots nervous a ship so much. There was also
a ton of flaks, so they couldn't slow down to the speed they needed
to slow down too, So these guys were jumping at like four getting they
got their helmets blasted off there right if the dudes were dropping without weapons,
um, just having to pull shit off dead people or whatever. The fuck?
So altitude do you know, like roughly or uh? It was like
between like three and five hundred feet or something like that. Something crazy like
it was low and it was fast. Yeah, yeah, yeah that's I
don't I can't speak to it without sounding like an idiot because I don't know
sky diving that well. But it was very low and a lot faster than
they anticipated. Um, so these guys start dropping, so you could just
land in like a hay stack can be fine, yep, And a lot
of guys did a lot of guys landed in just like happy little areas.
And we're like, but like, no shoot either, just fall Oh yeah,
I mean it's not the Yeah, I mean and some of these dudes
essentially, like a lot of the guys on this night, their shoots either
didn't open right away or they were so low that they still like you know,
broke arms, ankles whatever they like, low yeah, I mean low
like they it was just like they didn't really get the resistance they needed to
to slow themselves down. So it was not a happy land. I mean
even the guys who landed, okay, they're like on the normal jumps,
you know, I landed and I was still gonna hurt. Yeah, but
like on these like you like on this jump, like I had never been
in so much pain essentially, um, and then you got a fight after
that immediately oh god, in the in the dark and complete blackness, well
unless you and in the middle of the same mare glees. Yeah, so
uh oh yeah, so they're dropping all the Germans like what the fuck?
They pull their guns out and start shooting. Uh. Allegedly they killed essentially
everyone that dropped right over the town. Uh. It was an f company
of the five hundred fifth Parachute Infantry Regiment. They killed I think like twenty
guys got dropping on the counter town and they killed, um, most of
them basically and then there were other people who dropped on the town who I
guess got luckier barely. UM Henry langrere Uh dropped in the town, but
a little bit off to the side, and he was lucky enough to land
uh through a greenhouse roof, so just a bunch of glass basically. UM.
One paratrooper was caught in a tree near a church and as he was
trying to release his harness, was essentially machine gun to death by about a
half dozen army. They just ran up to him, and the mayor of
the town, Mayor Renaud, was like, yeah, I mean, he
got caught in a tree. There was nothing we could do to stop him.
They just ran up and lit into him. Essentially. Ken Russell,
another paratrooper who survived the Saint Marygli's Jump, said he looked to his right,
he saw a guy and I guess this guy was carrying again ordinance or
whatever. Saw a guy and then all of a sudden, gun he got
hit by a bullet or a shell or something. All of his I could
call him gammon grenades. I don't know what those are, but just it's
sort of like U in private Ryan when that flat gun lights up those guys
on the tank or no, I'm sorry the guy when the guy runs out
with a sticky bomb and he doesn't put it on the tank in time and
just goes away. Um. And then yeah, there was another guy that
landed in the fire whose munitions detonated. Another paratrooper, Private first Class Ernest
Blanchard, was floating down over the town when his friend it might have been
the same guy and two different people witnesses, but he was carrying minds and
demolitions and he got hit by something and m gone, just not there anymore.
Um exploded on impact, No, not on impact, in midair,
in mid air someone shot his bag. I don't know. I didn't think
it worked like that, but something happened. Um. Another guy horror stories,
I mean just horse like I said, the worst possible and these was
still a relatively successful paratroop drop. Not these guys, but the overall situation.
Another guy, Thomas Rhodes. He landed in the town square Samryglies but
survived, although he had been shot in the mouth. Um. A few
minutes after landing, two French civilians ran up to him to help him.
And I don't know how these French civilians did this, but they somehow persuaded
the German soldiers to not kill him instantly. I assume he was taken prisoner,
but though I think he was liberated shortly after, because like, you're
not really if you're not gonna kill him, you're not really taking you're not
moving with prisoners back like retreating. I guess as a whole fucking invasion,
it's coming through. Leave them, they don't know anything. We just got
to get the fuck out of here. M And this is the this is
the the it wasn't. This is both the one hundred first and the eighties.
So these guys are eighty second sam Maury Dumont, I think was more
one hundred and first, and I think these guys are more eighties. But
but around Saint Mary Glees was both eighty second and one hundred. Um that
was and then the other the other unit was the British first Airborne, but
they were up a little further. But eighty second and um, I think
a hundred first got dropped relatively close to each other, and these planes got
so Chris Cross in the air, I mean just fucking like. It doesn't
sound like an optimal environment to fly plants. You know, it's fun.
It's making me think of but this. Uh. I did this movie called
The Great Raid. Yeah that was the Cabanituan Death March. But I mean,
I mean the Germans were bad, the Japanese were. Oh we we
talked about this all the time. I was actually complaining on this show.
We're gonna go see Oppenheimer, right, um, there's going to be people
that leave that movie and like, I can't believe we did this to the
Japanese and we'll be like, all right, hold up, yeah you need
to know what the Japanese did to China. Yeah, toot to too,
American pod w the fucking I forget the unit, but the one that just
did human experiment. I I. I always tell people it's really funny because
they're like, there's also the thread of like, oh, we were so
we dropped the bomb on the Japanese because we were super racist, and make
no mistake, the propaganda about the Japanese was bananas like that we mean put
out or whatever, like not great. But uh my argument back is always
actually the reason you don't think the Japanese are as bad as the Nazis is
because of racism, because we because the Nazis were killing white people, and
we focus on that. We don't really focus on all the shitty things the
Japanese did in China and stuff like that. You don't and you don't care,
like you you have been taught not to care, like without even realizing
it. Or well, that is the fire bombing of like Tokyo killed way
more people than the nukes combined. Yeah, and bad to I assume be
a worse death unless I mean maybe the radiation. Everyone's not probably one,
but um, but yeah, I'm radiations not that bad. That businessman survived
two he got bombed twice. The man's unkillable. Only time can take him.
Uh So, John Steele, this is a fun one. He survived,
so it is actually fun. He took a piece of shrapnel just to
his left foot while he was going down in his parachute or whatever. And
but he never hit the groun out because his parachute got caught on a church
steeple. This is what was in the Longest Day, right, So his
parachute is caught on a church steeple. I think he while he had lost
his gun or something. He's seeing his entire unit get massacred. Below so
he's like, I don't think I should try to cut myself down. Hey,
I'm really high up. He's on a fucking church steep My foots all
fucked up and if they see me moving they'll probably just shoot me immediately.
So he just played dead for a couple hours hanging from a church. Steple,
I thought you're gonna be like he acted like a gargoyle of the church.
Yeah, and by the way, he now basically has his own gargoyle.
On that church. They hang a parachute paratrooper dummy from a parachute from
the steeple he landed on. Come on to this day in same Aero Glees.
I believe Same Aero Glees, there is still a paratrooper hanging from a
statue or like they rotate a dummy. Yeah, it actually it's not statue.
It isn't a dummy, which I think it's kind of weird. And
they replaced some of their shot out stay glass window with the Virgin a picture
of the Virgin Mary with paratroopers dropping behind her on the on that church.
But he had to sit there for two hours playing dead, until finally the
Germans and the church tower were like, I'm pretty sure that guy's alive,
Like I I think I see him breathing. And one of the Germans was
just like, I got it and was about to shoot him. And the
other German, Rudolph May, was like, it's fine, just bring him
in. So they they tossed him a rope and they were like, cut
yourself down, pull you in. We're I'm gonna kill you, We'll pull
you in. And so he did that, pulled himself in. Uh and
um he escaped like a few hours later, just jumped out a window and
ran away from them. Um and and God went behind the lines, got
his foot fix and went that right back into battle. Yeah, that one,
That one guy. That one German was like, I don't feel like
it. So you're saying American soldiers in World War two are much like hockey
players lower body injury, they just they keep going, keep going, yeah,
keep playing. I mean, hockey player would play through their throat getting
slit by it, probably if they could. Fucking psychos. I actually saw
right before this, I think the Blues resigned Oscar sun Quist and uh,
I don't really I know, I don't really fallow hockey. That's super close,
except for during the playoffs. Okay, but here's the thing I don't
I didn't know. I don't know what he looks like either. And the
Blues account I follow posted a picture of him, but he was so ugly
that I assumed it was the guy who ran the Blues account I follow,
because I was like, Oh, that's gotta be a guy running internet account.
And then I read the caption and I was like, oh my god,
that's a that's a that's a peak, prime of his life athlete who
has millions of dollars and probably the hottest girlfriend. My immediate reaction was like,
oh, yeah, who was this troll? Uh? But yeah,
yeah, their hockey players basically. Um. So, the French had some
not so fun interactions with the Americans and Germans as well. Um. One
French woman actually very nicely of her. She saw an American paratrooper laying down
like in her garden or something like under some brush, and he just goes,
it's all paying a magic up and she's like and he was just like,
She's like all right, all right, and two Germans ran up.
They had found four parachutes, but they had only captured three Americans, so
they're like, have you seen this fourth American anywhere, and she was like
nope, nope, I'm good and they were like okay, all right,
and they ran off or whatever and she but she says, she was like
I wouldn't have read her on a movie as a German either. I was
just really not in the mood too. U be the cause of a guy
die, right, So she was just like, I'm just gonna opt out.
Yeah, peace not, this isn't my problem. Uh. And then
another guy says, uh, what was it? Oh, this is great
actually, So it's back in Saint Mary Dumont, a man named mister damard
U saw two American paratroopers. The town had kind of been cleared out at
that point a little or at least that part of the town, and uh,
two soldiers were in front of his door. He decided to go outside
and be like, hey, welcome, thanks for liberating us, and um
he gave them a bottle of cider. And the paratroopers didn't trust the French,
and then they actually were like, you've been you know, under French
German troll for four years, you fucking collaborator. I don't know you,
bro. And so the the Americans were like you drink it first because it
might be poisoned, you know, side maybe you like maybe you like the
Germans. I don't know. I heard VI, she's pretty cool. VI
she France. So I was like, you guys are having a lot of
fun, why don't you drink this fucking cider. And so the guy drank
it and was like, see it isn't poisoned. You can wink as much
as yeah. Right, and then they were like, oh sweet. So
they took it and just drinking it profusely, and mister Damart had like the
battle was still going on, and the guy was like, he was like,
all right. So they started getting really drunk. So I had to
take it back from them so they wouldn't die at battle because they were way
too drunk to keep fighting. He was like, so he had to.
He had to re confiscate his liberation present to them. He's like, you
got to keep you're not done. Yeah, And then unfortunately there's one guy.
This story kind of confused me because I don't know why they did it.
Maybe their house was under fire, but um, the woman who didn't
rat out the American soldier or whatever, her brother who also lived in the
town. These are all tiny towns. These are all like bum bum fuck
fucking nowhere towns. She her brother tried to show the Americans. Um,
you know, he tried to wave a white flag out the window to be
like, hey, we're good. All this house is great. But the
last thing you should do when soldiers are walking through a town that they are
not familiar with and the enemy's still in open a window and pop out of
it. Um, because he was shot and killed by the American soldiers.
They all window opening And but the sister in law or the sister uh uh
said, she was like, you know, it sucks, but she's like,
I don't blame them, and it's just bad luck essentially. Wow.
But uh yeah, that is the story of the American paratroopers that had the
unfortunate luck of landing right in the middle. Now, of all those stories,
who would you want to be? Would I want to be the guy
on the tower stuple guy. I'll be the guy that explodes in the fire
just fuck it, I'm out. Wow. Yeah, to the accounts units,
very informative. Right in the middle of the towns. It sucks.
It was one of the crazy I would imagine. You know, there's been
bigger battles, blood of your battles. But I imagine nobody's just like kind
of landed in a brothel, I know, right just right in the middle
of right into a bed open bar. That's yeah, it's France. He
would something. Yeah. No, I mean there was some people who just
landed in a farm and got to hang out with cows and shit like that.
Um. Got um. The two things we do at the end of
the show, we say what'd you learn? That's the first question, So
start with that. What'd you guys learned today? Today? I learned that,
you know, what was the percentage of people that actually landed properly where
they were supposed to land? It actually wasn't as bad as it sounds.
Um. So for Drop Zone C, I didn't get the numbers for the
whole thing, but for Drop Zone C, which I mentioned earlier, which
included Easy Company from Banda Brothers. They were part of Drop Zone C,
I think two thirds of the people landed roughly in the proximity. Um.
But there were just certain parts of units that got completely scattered to the wind
essentially. Okay, So the failure of a successful campaign is always a little
footnote. We don't really dig deep into those stories too much because everything you
mentioned was kind of like a bullet point. Oh yeah, all these were
like minor, minor cavets, because most of the stuff you even hear about
this is oh they were all everywhere and they got together and then went in.
But you know what I mean, like like your unit and Private Ryan
was you guys weren't actually all part of the same unit. It was a
mishmash of guys. When you introduce each other, you were from one regiment
from another. And that was how it worked for the first couple days after
the invasion. It was everyone was a miss mishmash, and you were just
you're here, all right, you're fighting here. You know you're not gonna
go. Don't go find your unit like we need you right here. Your
unit, I'm sure has guys from another fucking unit. That's it's all fucking
nightmare to just stay here, hold this road and when the infantry from the
beaches comes through, then you can go fuck off find whoever you're supposed to
be win. But right now we're all just a we're all just we got
the same flag on, so let's just stay here. No um, but
yeah, this this stuff doesn't you don't. You typically only hear about the
successes or some of the funnier foibles, But I mean a lot of people,
uh really ate shit that night. I mean, and and I think
I would love to do a whole episode on this is it sounded? And
maybe this is just from the perspective of the paratroopers because they need someone to
blame, but they were really from what I read, did not have the
highest opinion of the C forty seven pilots. Well that's I was going to
say, second guess your spot or yeah what I mean, get a second
opinion, second opinion? Yeah, yeah, uh no, but so informative,
man, I mean, and stuff that. You know, it's like
these these accounts are always just they're heartbreaking but scary, it's fun. And
again, that's what I loved about Saving Private Ryan is like, yeah,
I know it sound maybe could sound a bit crass as somebody it's like yeah,
and then this guy fucking exploded. But like that's what saving Private Rind
did to me is it was just like we're not these aren't I mean,
these are all brave men, but like we're not going to paint them all
like White Knights, like you need to see what happened to him. There's
nothing romantic about a bullet. Listen, you try to save a child,
you're getting a bullet to the neck like Vin Diesel. But yeah, exactly,
ye try to White Knight you die. That's what they Yeah, they
I mean that movie relentlessly just ripped the romanticism. Oh, they're like just
after Schindler's List, right said, yeah, you probably assume you shot it
in ninety six, Yeah, yeah, ninety seven probably yeah. Yeah.
But yeah, So this was I think Spielberg, he I love what one
thing about where he's very I feel like he's a very good America, Like
he really believes in sort of the American idea. He does well. This
is also the easiest war to portray that. Yeah, we always it was
essentially a Marvel movie. We always joked at World Ward. We we joked
at World War One is like the most fucked up war of all time because
they actually were no good guys and bad guys. Kind of it kind of
gets portrayed that way because is it with the Germans again? But it was
really just a bunch of competing interests throwing just a bunch of cousins. Yeah,
a bunch of cousins throwing their subjects to the fucking on the playing meat
chests. Yeah, yeah, we as we like they play meat chests with
each other. World War two, though it really was it's like iron Man
and Thanos, right, It's yeah, it was pretty cut and dry.
Um. So the second question we like to ask is, because it's kind
of a little inside joke of ours, uh, is that because most people
are very stupid about history, they just immediately compare everything to Hitler, Like
that's like he's like the Hitler of that, or like you're being like Hitler
or Hitler did that. So whenever we like to identify the primary villain or
the shittiest person in an episode, we say, we ask who was today's
Hitler? So who's the Hitler of this episode? Who's the Hitler of this
episode? Let Dan go first, just say, I'm gonna say wind,
Wind, Wind, God. I want to say heat because the fire sucked,
but yeah, heat, fire, you know exactly. Actually, I'll
give you another one if you want to go heat. I'll say this ironic
since they were fighting Hitler, but those C forty seven pilots were a little
Yeah, dude, better spot. I always get a second, Yeah,
always get a second opinion on your jump. I don't know how they do
it now, you know, I'd have to ask Dan, our boss,
Dan Holloway, because just a while to be that far off, because now,
I mean it just eyeball on it. You're so accurate from thirteen thousand
feet from thirteen thousand and five, right, you can be really accurate.
Well, I mean it was a night jump, but I mean they don't.
They basically had no tools other than a compass and a mapping and we
have only been flying for like thirty years. Yeah, at that point flight
had only been invented thirty years. Oh, and I guess they didn't.
I mean maybe they didn't quite know the the top biography or whatever. You
know. Yeah, I really feel like those pilots were not was stunned by
how much anti aircraft fire that guy to be, That's what it was,
because they It's not like they were told like, oh, it's not going
to be that many people. That would be an insane thing to tell your
soldiers going into full You want to prepare them for the worst, Like the
guys in desert, the desert storm, the Gulf War ninety one. They
were like, yeah, the fight was easier than training. Training was horrible.
Yeah, um but yeah, I think that's guy. And you don't
have the luxury of missing your spot and then circling back around. No,
no, no, it's like get out. Yeah, you got one chancel.
Um man, thank you so much for joining us. Max Is on
the show today. I were going to mention this at the top of would
record it. Yeah, max Is on the show today again because you got
a new movie coming out with our buddy Cline Crawford as well. The Channel,
The Channel very cool bank heist movie. Are you both x Marines in
it? Your brothers were both former Marines? Okay, yeah, he's you
know, the better behaved of the two. Yeah. But it's a great
film and some pretty high speed tactics. So for if anybody that's into that
kind of stuff, I know, am I mean, if you like movies
like The Town or any sort of action at yeah, actually heat in the
Town. I mean, if you like those types of movies, you'll fucking
love this movie. Um, it is awesome. It is Avail on iTunes
now Friday Friday. Okay, well, this will come out next week.
So yeah, okay it out So it'll will have that link in our bio
if you want to check it out. And then also, um, it
is released in theaters as well in select cities including is it New York,
lay in New York, LA, San fran New Orleans, Dallas, Dallas,
UM yeah, maybe Chicago, like the bigger city. Yeah, so
check for it in your city. Uh. This is definitely a an excellent
movie first and foremost, before we fucking get romanticized anything else about it is
an excellent movie. But also it's an indie film needs your support just because
these are the types of movies we should be mantle and not everything can be
ant man or should or or should be ant man. Um. And I'm
just excited because I feel like movies are coming back a little bit like original
shit. Like I know, like Barbie is like based on IP but it
looks entertaining and the original And then Oppenheimer, we were talking about the Napoleon
trailer amazing, it looks fucking insane. And then the channel Man, I
mean, this movie is so cool. Um and it's it's it's I'm impressed
you guys pulled off such good action. UM with as an indie at that
budget level. Yeah, I know, it's amazing. We had a great
director and you know, the thing that I think separates this movie from a
lot of generic action films is that it's got a great storyline. There's relationships
that you know have you know, great arcs, and so it's it's you'll
get invested in it and it'll be entertaining and buckle up. It's a good
ride. Absolutely check it out for Max Martini, Stars Saving Private, Ryan
thirteen Hours and The Channel and Dan Rojester, I'm Rob Fox. You just
got saw Served