Speaker 1: Tired of the everyday grind, ever dream of a life
Speaker 1: of romantic adventure, want to get away from it all.
Speaker 2: We offer you Escape from.
Speaker 3: Escape, designed to free you from the four walls of
Speaker 3: to day for a half hour of high adventure.
Speaker 2: You are one hundred miles from your own lines, waiting
Speaker 2: for the enemy who will lead you to your destination.
Speaker 2: While the danger to you and your men becomes more acute.
Speaker 2: If you are discovered, the only road of escape will
Speaker 2: be dath.
Speaker 3: So listen now as Escape brings you The Thirteenth Truck,
Speaker 3: based on the story of Captain Douglas M.
Speaker 4: Smith.
Speaker 5: Some of the men called it a joy ride. Two
Speaker 5: days before we left headquarters at cabrit Egypt, Sickletobrook sneaked
Speaker 5: across into Nazi Hell Territory destination, a Nazi airfield one
Speaker 5: hundred miles behind enemy lines. A joy ride. The next
Speaker 5: twenty four hours could turn our army truck into a hearse.
Speaker 5: Just six of us in that truck Sergeant Heley, a corporal,
Speaker 5: re enlisted men, Hutchins, Swambling and Guffy, and myself, Captain
Speaker 5: Paul Brown, US Army I was the only American in
Speaker 5: the group. The others drafted from Montgomery a f army.
Speaker 5: As a unit, we were called desert Commandos. Our business sabotage.
Speaker 5: He deserts, he does it. Sergeant didn't see it, Captain, Sorry, sir,
Speaker 5: break an axelent. We're in big trouble.
Speaker 6: Listen to it. I think they were on a bloom
Speaker 6: and joy ride. You would, uh, Captain?
Speaker 4: What I was thinking?
Speaker 7: The man been wondering what they're in for this trip.
Speaker 5: Well, i'll hear about it tonight when we stop.
Speaker 8: That'll make him feel brighter. If a man's gonna die,
Speaker 8: it makes him feel better if he knows why.
Speaker 6: Cappy Brown I'm playing. I'm playing where.
Speaker 5: I'll pick him up the glass maser Schmidt can't tell me.
Speaker 5: Get too far, Pull up, Sergeant, I will have those rocks.
Speaker 9: Hurry, get the truck covered, man and try not to
Speaker 9: raise any dusts.
Speaker 6: What did yet?
Speaker 4: Captain?
Speaker 5: Nah, Hutchins said to the east, don't hear it?
Speaker 4: Hoped it with that couple heads got it. It's a plane,
Speaker 4: all right.
Speaker 5: I can't tell what kind it's kind this way and.
Speaker 6: They made this time with rock.
Speaker 4: Make him at it's a master smid on a truck man,
Speaker 4: Massa Schmidt, Come on, let's go, Sergeant.
Speaker 6: Keep it quiet.
Speaker 10: Nets and don't move, yeah, coming in. Yeah, if there
Speaker 10: came a large nettle pulling, that's what it's for.
Speaker 4: We had duck from a ready pond. If it doesn't pose.
Speaker 5: Moving back there, he said that knock you ductions.
Speaker 11: But the heads falling around and he has said stop
Speaker 11: right over an air we're sitting on it, big red heads.
Speaker 5: Captain, Well, don't move and whatever you do, don't touch
Speaker 5: that net.
Speaker 4: Shut or corporal.
Speaker 5: They're all over the place, captain and he's stickling back,
Speaker 5: giving away. Maybe don't hear him, sir, we'll out check. Okay,
Speaker 5: Jerry's gone. Come on now what I'll get that net
Speaker 5: loaded and let's get moving. We can put in another
Speaker 5: fifty miles before dark.
Speaker 4: This right, I guess we'll be in driving right in
Speaker 4: the Rummel's front yard.
Speaker 5: Sergeant Healey scratched in an ant under his shirt and
Speaker 5: then turned and hustled the man into the truck and
Speaker 5: we were on our way again. No singing now. The
Speaker 5: corporal stared across the desert from his side of the truck.
Speaker 5: Hutchins kept his eyes up where the messagement's roamed. The
Speaker 5: rest just scraped away at the layers of dust and sweat,
Speaker 5: Staring at each other. They covered twenty miles thirty zig
Speaker 5: zagging deeper into Nazi territory. Just before dark, we parked
Speaker 5: in some low lying hills above the Coast Highway, Rommel's
Speaker 5: main artery of communication and supply to the front lines.
Speaker 5: It was time to tell the men what they were
Speaker 5: in for.
Speaker 6: Settle down legs, Captain Brown of the.
Speaker 5: Wood ah Kesha wondering where we are. We're right here, Yeah,
Speaker 5: long me right down Jerry's throat. That it's just about
Speaker 5: intelligence reports say the Germans have established a hidden the
Speaker 5: airfield somewhere in this right here, just off the coast Highway.
Speaker 4: How do I know that?
Speaker 5: Our Nazi supply trucks have been spotted leaving the coast
Speaker 5: Highway taking a camel trail up into the hills right here,
Speaker 5: and they're supplying something up their headquarters is certain that's
Speaker 5: a hidden airfield.
Speaker 12: Oh, that explains all them fighter planes in the forward area.
Speaker 12: You're right well then, as I see it. So where
Speaker 12: to find that hidden airfields? Find a corporal and destroy
Speaker 12: it destroyed?
Speaker 5: So aw go in and dynamite. Where do we get
Speaker 5: the dynamite?
Speaker 7: We've got it, Corporal, You've been sitting on it for
Speaker 7: the last couple of days. Do you mean them boxes
Speaker 7: in the track dynamite?
Speaker 4: Hey, just a six ye that are.
Speaker 11: Going to blow up this airfield by ourselves.
Speaker 5: That's a job hut keeps getting all the what that
Speaker 5: swombly naphing Sarge?
Speaker 4: Captain say, we find the field? How do we get
Speaker 4: close enough to use the dynamite?
Speaker 5: Close won't do? Sergeant? You mean we're going right into
Speaker 5: the ruddy placer. That's right, Corporal, That's where we can
Speaker 5: do the most damage.
Speaker 7: One more questions it how do we get inside the airfield?
Speaker 4: We drive in, drive in. I could just see them.
Speaker 7: Not is letting us drive into their airfield with a
Speaker 7: truckload of explosives.
Speaker 5: So as it's dark, we move on to that next
Speaker 5: hill up ahead. From there, we watch that camera road
Speaker 5: that comes up from the Coast Highway. We'll rest up
Speaker 5: there all day tomorrow. Then tomorrow night, after dark, we'll
Speaker 5: leave a sentinel at the top of the hills. That'll
Speaker 5: be you Hutchins get Then we'll move the truck down
Speaker 5: and park at a sharp curve within twenty hours of
Speaker 5: the camel road and wait wait for what, sir, for
Speaker 5: you to spot a German supply convoy and its way
Speaker 5: up to the Camel Road. You're to wait and count
Speaker 5: exactly the number of trucks in the convoy and the
Speaker 5: distance separating room. Yes, and when you've got that information
Speaker 5: you come back and report. Then we wait until the
Speaker 5: Jerry convoy comes around the curve. We let all but
Speaker 5: the last truck pass by, and before this last truck
Speaker 5: comes in sight around the curve, we'll cut into the
Speaker 5: road and fall in line. You'll get the picture now
Speaker 5: of corporal. Yes, sir, only why aren't we falling at
Speaker 5: the end of the commons?
Speaker 6: Oh, come off it.
Speaker 8: Jerry's in the last truck gets suspicious when another truck
Speaker 8: comes up behind him.
Speaker 5: Unpaid to fight, not to think so?
Speaker 7: All right, corp then, but once you'll have a chance
Speaker 7: to earn your pay.
Speaker 5: After dark we moved onto the hill overlooking a long
Speaker 5: stretch of the Camel Road, a short distance from the
Speaker 5: sharp curve. We broke over the dynamite and attached time mechanisms.
Speaker 5: We finished preparations just before daylight, and the men covered
Speaker 5: the truck with a camouflage net and turned in for
Speaker 5: some sleep. With the sun it got hot under the net,
Speaker 5: then hotter plus the flies. And the flies reminded me
Speaker 5: of a of another place on a hillside in Ohio, sandwiches,
Speaker 5: potato salad, and a girl, dark eyes, dark hair, laughing
Speaker 5: and pushing me away. I had forgotten a name. I
Speaker 5: wanted to kiss her, but she was worried about the
Speaker 5: flies on the potato salad. What was her name? Jane,
Speaker 5: no Elaine, Eileen, And she let me kiss her lips? Cool, nice.
Speaker 5: We forgot about potato salad and the flies, blasted flies. Oh,
Speaker 5: what's the matter, sergeant getting dark? Sir ah, Yeah, there's
Speaker 5: time you slept since we left Cabritza.
Speaker 4: You needed it. Yeah, you were streaming.
Speaker 5: Yeah, your wife sirs. No, just a lady friend, Just
Speaker 5: something that happened a long time ago.
Speaker 7: I remember a bit of strawberry jam in Naples. It
Speaker 7: was she tended bar in one of them places you
Speaker 7: can never find when you go back. She never meant
Speaker 7: nothing to me. Funny thing I'd try to remember. Her
Speaker 7: name never comes to me.
Speaker 5: Oh, this heat, dripping wet. I guess we better get
Speaker 5: the man out. In a few minutes, the men were
Speaker 5: up on the truck with packs of dynamite on their backs.
Speaker 5: We left Hutchins on the hill to watch for the
Speaker 5: approaching convoy and moved down and park twenty yards from
Speaker 5: the sharp curve on the camel road. Now we waited
Speaker 5: two hours, passed, three four, No sign of the German
Speaker 5: truck convoy.
Speaker 7: What do we do if no convoy comes through tonight, sir?
Speaker 5: Try again tomorrow night? Oh five hours Still waiting, I
Speaker 5: began to think of the things that could go wrong.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 5: I considered the possibility that Hutchins might have fallen asleep
Speaker 5: up on the hill. There were patrols scouting the area.
Speaker 5: What if one of them discovered us. Could be a
Speaker 5: run for our lives. Then we needed darkness to get
Speaker 5: at that airfield, and there was only a few hours
Speaker 5: of it left. Still we waited no convoy. I was
Speaker 5: about to send the corporal to relieve Hutchins when he
Speaker 5: came scrambling down the hill. Captain, Gerry convoy twelve trucks,
Speaker 5: twelve you're positive, Hutchins and positives. I carry them three times,
Speaker 5: twelve trucks about one hundred yards apart, averaging thirty morein
Speaker 5: how good climb aboard Hutchins. I'm your tars Man. I
Speaker 5: can't each truck as it passes, we move in behind
Speaker 5: the eleventh truck.
Speaker 4: I just thought of something, all right, what are they
Speaker 4: going to think of?
Speaker 8: They count thirteen trucks when we reached the airfield, when
Speaker 8: they were only twelve trucks to begin with.
Speaker 5: We'll figure that one out when we get to it.
Speaker 6: If they can't captain first Jerry trucks coming around.
Speaker 3: A bench, we will return to Escape in just a moment.
Speaker 3: But first, CBS Radio wishes to call your attention to
Speaker 3: a new five a week daytime show on many of
Speaker 3: these same stations under the expert guidance of Jack Sterling.
Speaker 3: This new show asks members of the panel to make
Speaker 3: up your mind or for problems with the psychological Twist.
Speaker 3: The first week's guest list on make Up your Mind
Speaker 3: included Ilka Chase, Wendy Berry, Deams, Taylor, Earl Wilson, and
Speaker 3: Vic Marcillo, former manager of Jersey Joe Walcott.
Speaker 4: And now back to Escape.
Speaker 5: The first truck of the Nazi convoy roared around the
Speaker 5: curve and passed thirty seconds later another one. All we
Speaker 5: could see was two pinpoints of dim light coming at us,
Speaker 5: A dark shadow as it passed, and a tiny red
Speaker 5: light at the back of the truck. Three four rucks,
Speaker 5: then a command car. Now what if a number eleven
Speaker 5: or twelve were command cars? They'd stop to investigate the
Speaker 5: sudden appearance of a truck at the end of the convoy. Well,
Speaker 5: we'd take a chance. Truck number seven, eight, nine, two
Speaker 5: more start arrangine, Sergeant, Yes, here comes number ten. We
Speaker 5: pull out behind the next truck, Sergeant, and no headlights toil.
Speaker 5: We're in mind, right, sir. Here it comes eleven.
Speaker 4: Let's go. If you're in line, now you're lights on?
Speaker 6: Can't number curve just came around the curve and I'll
Speaker 6: gift the.
Speaker 5: Yards back a little pastor, Sergeant, come much twelve, he's
Speaker 5: dropping back now, good only that's number thirteen. Back there, corporal,
Speaker 5: where number twelve? Now, I'll keep your eyes peeled for
Speaker 5: that airfield. They'll have to do something about the extra
Speaker 5: truck in this convoy before we get there. In the meantime,
Speaker 5: sit tight and enjoy the ride. What did you say, swombly, Nothing?
Speaker 5: Nothing at all?
Speaker 4: Side All right, settle back, boys and enjoy the ride.
Speaker 11: Enjoy the blooming ride. Who them Jerry's in front of
Speaker 11: behind us. I'll enjoy the ready side more on the
Speaker 11: return trip. I can tell you trouble with you, Etchens
Speaker 11: you're a stinking pessimist. So if you're ready, well right,
Speaker 11: if we're all blown to blazes.
Speaker 5: The following half hour was uneventful. We moved along, keeping
Speaker 5: our place in line, watching the other trucks, watching for
Speaker 5: the airfield, seeing nothing but a small red dot ahead,
Speaker 5: two gray dots behind. Then the corporal noticed something about
Speaker 5: those two gray lights behind us. They grew larger, came closer.
Speaker 6: Captain, the rear truck is moving up on us. I
Speaker 6: think they want us to stop. What for? I know
Speaker 6: what do we do?
Speaker 5: Sir?
Speaker 4: Pull up right?
Speaker 5: The corporal Germans better than mine. You do the talking.
Speaker 5: The rest of you keep your knives handy. Nope, guns.
Speaker 5: There might be sentries along the road, game and I
Speaker 5: bang home. They want to match boys, have one.
Speaker 6: In my point if it cost a roof keeper.
Speaker 5: Okay, Uh, what's up to? Corporal gave him his letter
Speaker 5: that Jerry says it's a French one.
Speaker 6: I keep going.
Speaker 5: It's okay. He covered says they got a lot of French. Major.
Speaker 5: I mean, oh clear, go to work, Corporal, Okay, let's go.
Speaker 5: You've got to catch up with a convoy before they
Speaker 5: come back looking for you.
Speaker 7: Yes, and if we don't spot that airfield pretty soon,
Speaker 7: I'm gonna have conniptions.
Speaker 4: I am.
Speaker 5: We caught up and took our place again. We were
Speaker 5: about to reach the Nazi airfield soon, so I gave
Speaker 5: the men their final instructions. There was still one truck
Speaker 5: too many in the convoy that had to be taken
Speaker 5: care of. Then we topped a height and spoted the
Speaker 5: cluster of pinpoint lights up ahead. This had to be
Speaker 5: the hidden Nazi airfield. I gave the sergeant the order
Speaker 5: to swerve the truck across the road, blocking it. I
Speaker 5: had a couple of years circle around behind them as
Speaker 5: they reach us. Hurry there they come fasting you there,
Speaker 5: motor trouble corporal.
Speaker 6: The motor is to salmon block and camerade.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, they comes only two.
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 5: Yeah, that does it? Okay, transfer everything to the Jerry truck.
Speaker 5: Fast a Twamley. You take our truck and hide it
Speaker 5: and that wady off the road.
Speaker 4: Stay with it.
Speaker 5: We'll rally back here no more than fifteen minutes from
Speaker 5: aunt and you got that man and Twamley. This is
Speaker 5: an order. Wait here for fifteen minutes, then start back
Speaker 5: to the base, even if you have to go back alone.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir.
Speaker 5: Just as we caught up with a Jerry convoy, the
Speaker 5: truck ahead pulled through the front gate. Two guards leisurely
Speaker 5: watched each truck as it passed stund a spotlight. We
Speaker 5: moved up slowly in our proper position. We reached the gate.
Speaker 5: The guards didn't know then we were through the gate
Speaker 5: and inside. We'd made it. The other trucks parked about
Speaker 5: one hundred yards further on. We pulled up at the
Speaker 5: end of the line and we got out, stalling as
Speaker 5: much as possible. The light over the front gate went on.
Speaker 5: The other drivers were gone. Now it was quiet and
Speaker 5: come on quiet, okay, okay, I'll hold it here. We'll
Speaker 5: split up now, Corporate, you and Guffy take that side
Speaker 5: of the field. Look for planes, Hutchins, you work on
Speaker 5: those buildings along there. Sergeant, we'll take the side of
Speaker 5: the field and the hangars. I'll make sure you'll plant
Speaker 5: that dynamite where will do the most good good luck.
Speaker 5: Come on, sergeant, they're the bunker. Captain in here, Captain, look, yeah,
Speaker 5: three planes, bull fighters.
Speaker 7: It must be at least half a dozen bunkers along
Speaker 7: this side of the field with planes in all of them.
Speaker 5: We've hit the jackpot, Captain. Yeah, you start at the
Speaker 5: other end, sergeant, work your way back. Meet you here
Speaker 5: in three minutes. Right there, I found three bunkers, planes
Speaker 5: in each of them, a squad structure with a sign
Speaker 5: out front actung explosives. I put two loads under that one,
Speaker 5: then a warehouse, a bulldozer, trucks, cars, and three barracks buildings.
Speaker 5: From somewhere in the pitch blow, I could hear voices
Speaker 5: laughing and talking, and I was back at the first bunker,
Speaker 5: and the sergeant moved out of the dark.
Speaker 2: He was smiling, lanes and all them bunkers.
Speaker 4: Then I got a fuel reservoir. While I was editor.
Speaker 5: Good, let's get out of here.
Speaker 4: We've been spotted.
Speaker 5: The sergeant cut the guard down before he could pull
Speaker 5: a rifle off his shoulder. Spotlights went on everywhere. Other
Speaker 5: guards came running. Then a door opened behind us. Excited
Speaker 5: figures rushed out and stopped dead in their tracks when
Speaker 5: they saw us. We stood there, face to face with
Speaker 5: a half a dozen surprise Nazi officers. The sergeant whipped
Speaker 5: his machine gun around, and they dropped one after another
Speaker 5: right at our feet, all but one. He stumbled forward,
Speaker 5: right into the sergeant's arms. The sergeant held him as
Speaker 5: a shield with one arm and went quite on firing
Speaker 5: the other.
Speaker 4: Wait for the main game, sergeant, right for that.
Speaker 5: We moved through patches of darkness and smoke, dragging the
Speaker 5: Nazi officer with us. The guards were firing and wild,
Speaker 5: confusion and down. A strange thing happened as we moved
Speaker 5: under the light at the main gate. The Jerry's quit
Speaker 5: firing at us. They were all around us, but out
Speaker 5: of sight, silent watching us. We made a perfect target,
Speaker 5: but not a shot was fired. I couldn't figure it out.
Speaker 4: I don't get it, Captain, What are they waiting for?
Speaker 5: I don't know. Maybe it's that Jerry officer you've got
Speaker 5: there him.
Speaker 7: You don't look important, better fatigues, no rank, insignia, nothing
Speaker 7: but that campaign metal.
Speaker 5: Hang out to him, just the same.
Speaker 4: Don't worry.
Speaker 7: Hello, the main gates closed.
Speaker 4: It's locked. Yeah, how are we going to get out?
Speaker 5: Look? There was a staff car park just fifteen yards away.
Speaker 5: We moved to it, wondering how long it would be
Speaker 5: before the guards made up their minds to start shooting again.
Speaker 5: The sergeant got in the back with the Nazi officer
Speaker 5: and I started the car and headed right for the gate,
Speaker 5: and then we were thrown.
Speaker 6: Let's get a wro his bloody place. I'm exposing.
Speaker 4: This is going off any second now. See if any
Speaker 4: of them pull out after us. I don't think so.
Speaker 5: Not kid hell the water. He should be up around
Speaker 5: that bend in the road. I wonder how many of
Speaker 5: the men made it back.
Speaker 4: You'll soon find out, hi, say, she goes.
Speaker 5: The sky turned white and red as the shockwave crashed
Speaker 5: against us. The car swirred from side to side, shells
Speaker 5: through the Amadut screamed in at us from every direction,
Speaker 5: tearing the landscape open everywhere. I could hardly hold a
Speaker 5: car on the road and movie. Finally, the road curved
Speaker 5: around a hill, offering some protection from the bob.
Speaker 4: Barker of the explosions. God did we do all? That's?
Speaker 4: Looks like it that was meant for you. Fritz, Hey,
Speaker 4: come back at you. What's wrong?
Speaker 6: He's I'm gone hold it?
Speaker 4: No, he got away. Well, I'm going off for how
Speaker 4: it's till dark.
Speaker 5: Never find him now, anyway, lost? We found them in
Speaker 5: waiting at the Waddy. They piled into the Nazi staff
Speaker 5: car and there were six of us again, yep, all six.
Speaker 5: Operation completed and we didn't lose a man. We still
Speaker 5: had a long, hazardous drive back to our lines, but
Speaker 5: it was different now it was going home. Hy drove
Speaker 5: and Sergeant sat next to me. He was brooding about
Speaker 5: the Nazi officer. Cheer up, Sergeant, maybe you can get
Speaker 5: yourself another on the next raid.
Speaker 4: I suppose.
Speaker 8: Well, anyhow, I got a souvenir part of his jackie too.
Speaker 8: Ever see a Jerry medal like that before, Captain, I haven't.
Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, that's what's the medica? Holy? What's the meta?
Speaker 4: You got this off that officer? Yes, sir, do you
Speaker 4: know what it iss?
Speaker 6: What?
Speaker 5: It's the Hitler knights Cross Hitler knights Cross. Yes, the
Speaker 5: furious personal medal that there's only three that he's ever
Speaker 5: given out. Oh, sir three, Garying got one one for
Speaker 5: von Runstedtt.
Speaker 4: What about the other?
Speaker 5: Rommel Take your pick, Sergeant, which one of them did
Speaker 5: we have?
Speaker 3: Under the direction of Anthony Ellis, Escape has brought you
Speaker 3: The Thirteenth Truck, adapted by Gus Bays from the story
Speaker 3: of Captain Douglas M. Smith, as told to Cecil Carnes,
Speaker 3: starring High ever Back as Captain Brown, with Richard Peel
Speaker 3: as the Sergeant. Featured in the cast were Alistair Duncan,
Speaker 3: Charlie lung, Alec Harpord, and Jack Krushian. The special music
Speaker 3: for Escape was composed and conducted by Leeth Stephens.
Speaker 13: Next week, you are the subject of an experiment, an
Speaker 13: experiment to make you the most powerful man on earth,
Speaker 13: while if it succeeds, from that moment on, you will
Speaker 13: be forever locked in a world from which there can
Speaker 13: be no escape.
Speaker 3: So listen next week when Escape will bring you Irving
Speaker 3: Rhese's extraordinary story The Man from Tomorrow, A sensational trial
Speaker 3: of old San Francisco in eighteen seventy, will be your
Speaker 3: Crime for Classic on CBS Radio tomorrow evening. The title
Speaker 3: The Incredible Trial of Laura D.
Speaker 4: Fair.
Speaker 3: It's a long title, but whether you have a shorter
Speaker 3: or long memory, don't miss this exciting story of missus
Speaker 3: Fair's incredible trial, dramatized by CBS Radio on Crime Classics
Speaker 3: tomorrow evening over most of these same stations. This is
Speaker 3: Roy Rowan speaking, and remember there's action as a policeman
Speaker 3: really finds it in twenty first Precinct Tuesdays on the
Speaker 3: CBS Radio network.