We're aiming to cover a wide range of individuals in our Biography specials, from extraordinary soldiers to larger-than-life world leaders, from people who impacted culture on the homefronts to those whose ww2 experiences influenced their post-war life. Roald Dahl is definitely one of the latter category, as his post-war work had a gigantic cultural impact all across the world. Please help us make more specials and biography episodes just like this by joining the TimeGhost Army on www.patreon.com/timeghosthistory or timeghost.tv. Cheers, Joram . *RULES OF CONDUCT* STAY CIVIL AND POLITE we will delete any comments with personal insults, or attacks. AVOID PARTISAN POLITICS AS FAR AS YOU CAN we reserve the right to cut off vitriolic debates. HATE SPEECH IN ANY DIRECTION will lead to a ban. RACISM, XENOPHOBIA, OR SLAMMING OF MINORITIES will lead to an immediate ban. PARTISAN REVISIONISM, ESPECIALLY HOLOCAUST AND HOLODOMOR DENIAL will lead to an immediate ban.
Great episode as usual, however I would take issue with the suggestion that Roald Dahl's stories have been cherished worldwide for decades, Indy. You might want to ask your German hosts about it but I suspect they would tell you the same thing-at least here, in Poland, children's literature usually follows the established continental European canon (with quite a few traditional local additions of course) and I guarantee you that were it not for Anglophone YTbers I follow, I never would have learned the slightiest thing about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-and even now all I can associate with it are several visuals, I have no idea about the actual plot. Glancing at the man's Wikipedia page, I can spot _some_ titles I've heard of but that's about it: I've _heard_ of their existence.
It might be worth suggesting the Goons - the BBC Radio comedy show from the ninety fifties - which included; Spike Milligan - the comic messiah, especially as his first volume of memories is named Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, Peter Sellers - the man of a thousand characters, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine. All of whom served during the Second World War. Their influence went to inspire many British comedians including the Monty Python team.
And here's The Rest of the Story: Dahl wrote a collection of short stories around his time in the RAF. The book is "Over to You", and one of those stories is "They Shall Not See Death", about a flier for the RAF stationed in Palestine who thinks he was in a dogfight for two hours when actually he has been missing for two DAYS! This was read by a Japanese boy who loved to draw planes, and clearly inspired the boy--Hayao Miyazaki--to place the sequence in one of the animated films he grew up to write and create: "Porco Rosso". The vision described in the story and Miyazaki put into the film--a kind of pilots Valhalla of dead men and dead planes soundlessly floating in the upper atmosphere--was reused decades later in another Miyazaki film, "The Wind Rises", telling the life story of the designer of the "Zero" fighter plane. I totally recommend both movies!
@@theblackprince1346 This movie was not _a bit_ ludicrous, it was absurd all the way through. Take Bond's fake funeral from the beginning. He's lowered inside a coffin into the sea, then captured by a submarine. Cool. Only problem is, he has the entire freaking breathing gear on the whole time so the scheme is pointless from the get-go. And it only goes downhill from there: the Soviets and American diplomats are such unbelievable retards they could be tricked into going full-nuclear on one another by a five-year-old. And the likes of Octopussy proved that Bond Soviets did not have to be idiots.
@@theblackprince1346 Yeah, I like that one, too. Can't really say which one's my favorite, although I'm personally a rare fan of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I would have loved The Spy Who Loved Me were it not for that atrocious final act... And I happen to enjoy the second and third Brosnan movie over GoldenEye.
Two other interesting men of World War Two were Brian Horrocks and Leslie Morshead: Brian Horrocks was in the Great War and captured by the Germans, he befriended one of the guards and made many escape attempts. He was sent to Russia in the civil war to aid the White Army where he engaged in a sword duel. He also fought in the Anglo-Irish War. When WW2 came around, Horrocks retreated and evacuated at Dunkirk in 1940, he then led troops in the North Africa Campaign in many battles. In June of 1943, he was seriously injured in an air raid, getting pierced in the upper chest, lungs, and stomach. A year later, he assumed command of thirty Corps in Normandy to take out the trapped German 7th Army in the Falaise Pocket. His troops moved twice the distance that the logistical planners prepared for, and commanded the British ground forces in Market Garden. Sir Leslie James Morshead fought at Gallipoli,Passchendaele, and other battles in the Great War. He was the Australian commander of Australian troops at Tobruk, and went to lead in the Borneo campaign in the Pacific. His troops nicknamed him “Ming the merciless” after the comic and later 1936 Series villain in Flash Gordon.
During the Ardenne offensive Horrocks was in command of the British forces succesfully covering the Allied Northern flank and stopping the Germans to break through there. Appearantly when ordered to do so by Montgomery he stated; ''Well Monty, old cock. Let's try not to make a shambles out of it this time, shall we?.'' In which he left it unclear whether he referred to may and june 1940, or the failure of operation Market Garden.
Also Ian Smith, who served as a pilot in Italy. He was shot down and had to evade the enemy. He hid among the local Italians in various villages for many weeks before making a run for the front line which was successful. He reunited with the British forces and continued to serve until the end of the war.
Dahl's recollection of shaking so badly that he couldn't light his own cigarettes paralleled a story my older brother told me. He served two tours to Vietnam as a US Marine radio operator. On the flight home from his second tour, he said that he had to help several others light their cigarettes, because they were shaking so badly that they couldn't light their own. He said, "I was in pretty bad shape too, but at least I could light my own cigarettes." When he got home, he chain smoked four packs per day of unfiltered Camel cigarettes.
Dahl's father had gone to Wales, and his uncle first lived in France, but also came to Britain, and I guess to Llandaff to meet his brother. They were Norwegians, doing trade, setting up a business abroad, where chances were better than at home. That explains Roald Dahl's Norwegian name, he was born in Wales, and both his parents were from Norge, visiting their family ever summer holiday. I think you can safely say, he was not afraid to cross national borders, he had a great start in life. Except for his nose, in a car accident being a boy (they CALLED him Boy, not Roald!) his nose was hanging on a thread. Doctor placed it back, and miraculously, it cured. That very same nose got hurt again, crash landing. My suggestion, do read his books on flying planes, Over to you, and Going Solo, was it? His autobiography in several short stories, Boy, is amazing. This man is very very very good in writing down how things were, without losing himself in huge numbers of words. Example? That car accident, he first tells us, they had a car, in those days that was something special. And he describes it. You know these convertable cars that have a windscreen out of glass? Like the Willy Jeeps? Well, our car had TWO of those windscreens, one for the driver, and one for the four passengers in the back. See? We have the picture! This was a huge car, not just an ordinary car. And his oldest sister just passed her test, so she was up front, fighting with levers and pedals for clutch and gearbox. And then there was that ditch.
I remember reading "Going Solo" years ago in elementary, one of the things I remember was regarding his height being a problem when flying a fighter plane, and how some mechanic or someone else mentioned to him that he should consider switching to bombers which would have had more room for him to stretch his legs in.
Really hope you will do a bio on Pat Pattle, (mentioned in the video) who, despite getting killed so early in the war, was the RAF's top scoring ace. Also on Sailor Malan, who wrote the book on aerial combat (10 rules for air fighting) that contributed to winning the Battle of Britain, and also fought for human rights in South Africa after the war.
@Percy Harry Hotspur I did refer to it as a mistake, and mistakes do happen. I've been following this channel from the start and from some of the background stuff they've done I don't think any of the crew are English.
@Percy Harry Hotspur not quite. The rank is pilot officer; it is not capitalised as it is not a proper noun. However, when it is part of a title it is part of the proper noun so become capitalised, as in Pilot Officer Dahl or Plt Off Dahl.
My Grandfather is a year junior, and passed in 2004. He probably gave up smoking around 1957 and his first heart attack. He spent the War in signals, often a lineman. Not quite the front lines. But often shot at.
Would recommend his 'Over to You' stories dealing with his and other peoples experience of Air fighting complete with after death experiences,vengeful Greek islanders,jaded bomber pilots and lot lots more .
On British TV there was a somewhat macabre series called "Tales of the Unexpected". Many if not all were based on Dahl stories and he also introduced them. It's a coincidence, but there was a Luftwaffe fighter ace with 128 victories named Walther Dahl. Later in the war he specialised in "Sturmgruppe" attacks on American bombers in specially armed and armoured aircraft. An American ace of the Spanish Civil War named Harold "Whitey" Dahl fought on the Republican side.
@@thebog11 Individually they were Sturmbock but they tried to attack in groups, which were called Sturmgruppen. Especially when they launched frontal attacks on US bombers, the crews of the latter referred to their attacks as "company front".
@@dangerouslytalented One of his children (Theo) was in an accident that caused him to suffer hydrocephalus (a dangerous accumulation of water on the brain) there was a mechanical shunt available to help drain the fluid but it wasn't very reliable causing pain and temporary blindness so Dahl set out to build a better one along with a friend with whom he flew model planes , its obsolete now but at the time it was a big improvement .
I remember reading alot of Roald Dahl when I was really young (8-10 years old). Never had I imagined he saw so much action as an RAF pilot! Great video as always :)
I loved this episode, great story of a fascinating man. Fighter ace turned childrens author. I loved reading his books when I was a kid and I'm glad that you guys did bio episode about him.
Thanks Indy and team. Ronald Dahl is one of my favourite authors especially Danny Champion of the World a great book for young children who enjoy being outdoors in nature and being a bit of a rapscallion! Tales of the Unexpected are great short stories. Hats off to the man and his many achievements. RIP.
I have very vivid memories of reading Boy and Going Solo as a child. I attribute my interest in WW2 and history as a whole to that experience. Roald Dahl was a truly gifted writer.
He lived in a town called Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, which is 4 miles from where I up. Aslo my mum typed up his daughter's dissertation for University and as a thank you my older brother and I got two autographed copies. One was The Twits and the other one was George's Marvelous Medicine.
7:21 apparently his kids never heard of the spy thing until years and years after he died, and were amazed at him keeping it a secret after being a horrible gossip. Perhaps he wasn't that bad at keeping secrets after all
The best way to keep secrets without anyone noticing is to be chatty about every day life stuff. Nobody expects hidden secrets from someone sharing trivial stuff all the time ...
@@brag0001 no in fact; people who talk tend to keep talking and it just takes one slip up. already the fact he was literally a diplomat and an officer makes him an obvious target, one who holds secrets. so no amount of blabbermouth (what a dumb idea) would distract others from the obvious fact he has some secrets. judging from his mendacious prolix bios i would think the easiest way to get his secrets would be to stroke his ego. i would also try to play up all the abuse in boarding school if i felt i could use that to turn him. getting an idiot to blab is one thing but turning someone to your side is quite another! i doubt he could ever flip. but that boarding school hurt, and what did he get for it? Nothing! and his patriotism, you know where that led? broken nose, scars, more pain. What are you Dahl, a masochist or a sucker? Maybe both! I don't think he could be played like a fiddle but that's how to try to crack that nut.
@@QuizmasterLaw things only slip when you are actually touching the topic. That's not what you do when you want to preserve the secret of even being involved in some topic. Instead you present yourself passionate about totally innocent and unrelated things, example as a passionate fan of gardening, cooking or football. I'm not saying that you can hide being a Diplomat and as such having access to classified information. But since everybody knows that maybe half the staff in an embassy is actually spies you can at least try to pass as one of the normal diplomatic core employees instead if being immediately being suspected to be part of the secret service department.
This is what i miss from the good old days of indy on the great war! So good to see such well made biographys! I have no doubts that you will so keep up the simply amazing work!
Thanks for this. Going Solo was one of my favourite books as a kid and I looked up to the image Dahl gave of himself. But watching this video, which lays out his life plainly, it is obvious he was not the kind of person to emulate. Are we all destined to outgrow our childhood heroes?
Its more like, in todays day and age, more than ever we learn so many of our heroes, idols have done some betrayal of basic morality in views, words and or actions by our own and really, the main collective standard, only a select few ever remained pure, untarnished in their image, like Mr. Rogers or Keanu Reeves.
If you live in the UK there is a good choice you'd have read "boy" and "going solo" at school.. Pretty sure it was curriculum in the early 90's at least, fairly candid view of his early life.
Some time in the early very late 70's, mum got a call and we shot up to london in the late afternoon, apparently there was a very special reading happening, and she dragged me up to some place I still don't know where. Why? Roald Dahl, in an old fashioned drawing room, reading James and the Giant Peach to a room full of entranced "underprivileged kids", he definitely sat for more than 2 hours then and he seems to have enjoyed the attention. From what I gather it ran well over, didn't leave to gone midnight, got into all sorts of trouble at school the next day as I was half asleep!
When I was in school, I read a few of his stories, in Dutch, because I hadn't mastered English yet. I remember the story "A Piece of Cake" (looked it up because in Dutch it was: 'Een makkie' (too easy)). He flew Gloster Gladiator fighter planes, which looked a bit like the WW2 Lysander, only much more fragile and smaller. According to Dahl, the Gladiator plane had a reputation among pilots of combustibility. 'If someone would say, I am going to build something that will burn better and longer than anything else, he would probably have come up with a Gladiator.' Translated from how I remember it was in Dutch.
The Luftwaffe pilot standing next to the shot down Hawker Hurricane is a famous fighter ace named Hans Joachim Marseille who was quite a character and worth reading about.
My father has or had a copy of Gremlins as a boy here in Melbourne Australia and I read it a couple of times. The Gremlin characters are very similar to one who appeared in a Bugs Bunny WWII episode.
Little suggestion for a biography - British actor Arnold Ridley. Served 1915-17 in WW1, discharged after being severely wounded at the Somme. Re-enlisted in WW2, commissioned as a 'conducting officer', riding herd on journalists visiting troops during the 'phoney war', being evacuated from Boulogne on the 23rd of May, he was again discharged on medical grounds, he relinquished his commission and joined his local Home Guard unit, and - having taken up acting and writing - volunteered with ENSA. Bonus factoid, his great-niece is Daisy Ridley.
When he describes shaking after the battle it reminded me of a couple of incidents when I was a police officer. I watched officers go through situations completely calm and in control, only to be shaking badly afterward. Adrenaline does strange and magical things to you.
Awesome episode! I hope that other aviators like the writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (of the petit prince fame) gets covered too. An episode of the war time exploits of Sir Christopher Lee, the fleming brothers (Ian and Peter) and David Niven would be also wonderful. Especially the latter and his deception operation with fake general montgomery body double.
Thank you for mentioning Dahl's anti-Semitism and not whitewashing over it. This doesn't detract from his heroic exploits fighting the Nazis in World War II, but rather show this talented and enigmatic man had some serious flaws as well.
I think you should make a special about Bolesław Romanowski en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolesław_Romanowski A polish submarine commander who served alongside the Royal Navy. His personal wartime story has been put to paper in a thrilling book "torpeda w celu!" (torpedo in target). His wartime vitae goes through real highs and lows, from sneaking through great belt out of Baltic sea on ORP wilk, then taking command of ORP Jastrząb that was sunk by the British in a friendly fire accident while escorting the pq17, then assuming command of ORP Dzik, a british build sub, which he commanded while stationed in Malta. And returning to Poland as cpt of the ORP Błyskawica that is today a museum ship in Gdynia. He suffered bad treatment by communists after war and today the 3rd submarine flotilla of the polish navy bears his name. I think if you research him more, you will find it utterly interesting!
I think that Indy has slightly underplayed Dahl’s solo flight to Greece from North Africa. Dahl returned to his squadrons airfield from hospital only to be told that they had flown to Greece and not only that he was assigned to join them with another Hurricane which was a plane that he had never flown before! If I remember correctly he was allowed an hour’s familiarisation flight and then sent on his way with a roadmap of Greece and a basic heading from Africa towards Greece. He was one of maybe three of his squadron pilots to survive that campaign of the eighteen young men who flew.
I really enjoyed reading Boy and Going SOlo as a child, and I highly recommend them to anyone, as they are fairly easy reads, but well worth it at the same time. As Indy says, they are not so historically accurate, and liberties may have been taken to make it more entertaining, but if you keep this in mind, its still interesting and informative.
I listened to the audiobook of britan's efforts to inspire america to join them in WW2 and Dahl's role in that. It was well written and worth a "read." Something Astrid may have covered in her "Spies and Ties" series but may be worth looking into if she hasn't already. 🕵️♀️🕵️♂️👔👔
I've got a really interesting character for you. He is staff captain Václav Morávek. He was devout catholic and pre-war army champion in pistol shooting, which got him nickname God's gunsliger. He was part of resistance group Tři králové (Three kings) in occupied Czechoslovakia and was enemy no.1 for Prague's office of Gestapo. He earned his reputation, aside from his resistance actions, for personally delivering each week a new copy of resistance magazine V Boj to the HQ of Gestapo and by humiliating Oskar Fleischer, Gestapo officer tasked with capturing him and his group, when he dressed up as German officer and went to the Gestapo bar and asked Fleischer if he could light his cigarette, which Fleischer did. Morávek thanked him, left the bar and wrote detailed letter to Fleischers boss Hans-Ulrich Geschke about it. There is a lot more interesting stuff he did, including asasination attempt of Heinrich Himmler, but I'll let Indy and Sparty to tell you about them if they decide to make episode about him.
Roald Dahl was also an avid photographer, including snapping pictures of both his time in East Africa and interesting sites in Iraq and Egypt. He recounts the story of at least one of his photos in his autobiographical "Boy" (it's also not hard to find the inspiration of some of his more memorable fictional characters such as Miss Trunchbull in that book): www.roalddahl.com/blog/2018/march/roald-dahl-the-photographer
Since we're talking about pilots, I have some new suggestions: Hans Ulrich Rudell, Adolf Galland, Ivan Kozhedub, Alexander Pokryshkin, Douglas Bader, David McCampbell, Clive Caldwell and Witoldz Urbanowicz
To be fair, any country with an 'imperial past' will have such stories. Great Britain, France, even Holland and Belgium have their incredibly bloody warstories of the many wars fought in their colonies against evil independence fighters.
@@WorldWarTwo Here is a brief description: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler:_My_Part_in_His_Downfall www.amazon.com/Adolf-Hitler-Part-Downfall-Memoirs/dp/0140035206 Hope Spike's family is still getting royalties.
@@darthvaderreviews6926 I personally believe Shakespeare is in fact an immortal and fought in basically every war in human history. And is cursed with prescient knowledge of all human conflict to come.
@zain mudassir Hemingway was a volunteer ambulance driver in Italy. He was close to the action much of the time and shared the danger with the soldiers, but he didn't actually fight.
Hello Team, as always top notch work. Would it be possible to do a video on VMF-214 (More commonly known as the Black Sheep)? My father is a big fan of the 70s TV show and would get a kick out of it. Thanks again.
Hard to believe that the author of Willy Wonka and James and the Giant Peach was such a bada$$ in WWII and married Patricia Neal to boot. I enjoyed this. Another bada$$ star back then was Hedy Lamarr. You should do a story on that amazing woman's life. Other greats that you could highlight: Jimmy Stewart, George McGovern, Don Rickles, Ian Fleming, and last but certainly not least Audie Murphy. The baddest bada$$ of them all. And for a war hero that has gone largely unnoticed.....do the story of Paul "Pappy" Gunn.
We're aiming to cover a wide range of individuals in our Biography specials, from extraordinary soldiers to larger-than-life world leaders, from people who impacted culture on the homefronts to those whose ww2 experiences influenced their post-war life. Roald Dahl is definitely one of the latter category, as his post-war work had a gigantic cultural impact all across the world. Please help us make more specials and biography episodes just like this by joining the TimeGhost Army on www.patreon.com/timeghosthistory or timeghost.tv.
Cheers, Joram
.
*RULES OF CONDUCT*
STAY CIVIL AND POLITE we will delete any comments with personal insults, or attacks.
AVOID PARTISAN POLITICS AS FAR AS YOU CAN we reserve the right to cut off vitriolic debates.
HATE SPEECH IN ANY DIRECTION will lead to a ban.
RACISM, XENOPHOBIA, OR SLAMMING OF MINORITIES will lead to an immediate ban.
PARTISAN REVISIONISM, ESPECIALLY HOLOCAUST AND HOLODOMOR DENIAL will lead to an immediate ban.
The fact that this is a disclaimer you have to make really worries me about society today
You should do one on dr Seuss and his political cartoons.
I think it would be interesting to know what Alec Guiness and Richard Attenborough did during the war.
Great episode as usual, however I would take issue with the suggestion that Roald Dahl's stories have been cherished worldwide for decades, Indy. You might want to ask your German hosts about it but I suspect they would tell you the same thing-at least here, in Poland, children's literature usually follows the established continental European canon (with quite a few traditional local additions of course) and I guarantee you that were it not for Anglophone YTbers I follow, I never would have learned the slightiest thing about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-and even now all I can associate with it are several visuals, I have no idea about the actual plot. Glancing at the man's Wikipedia page, I can spot _some_ titles I've heard of but that's about it: I've _heard_ of their existence.
It might be worth suggesting the Goons - the BBC Radio comedy show from the ninety fifties - which included; Spike Milligan - the comic messiah, especially as his first volume of memories is named Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, Peter Sellers - the man of a thousand characters, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine. All of whom served during the Second World War. Their influence went to inspire many British comedians including the Monty Python team.
And here's The Rest of the Story: Dahl wrote a collection of short stories around his time in the RAF. The book is "Over to You", and one of those stories is "They Shall Not See Death", about a flier for the RAF stationed in Palestine who thinks he was in a dogfight for two hours when actually he has been missing for two DAYS! This was read by a Japanese boy who loved to draw planes, and clearly inspired the boy--Hayao Miyazaki--to place the sequence in one of the animated films he grew up to write and create: "Porco Rosso". The vision described in the story and Miyazaki put into the film--a kind of pilots Valhalla of dead men and dead planes soundlessly floating in the upper atmosphere--was reused decades later in another Miyazaki film, "The Wind Rises", telling the life story of the designer of the "Zero" fighter plane. I totally recommend both movies!
Came to the comments to add this exact story, only to find you've already done it! Bravo sir!
I loved Porco Rosso!
I think you should do an episode on Sir Chris Lee, he was apart of SOE during the war
THIS. ^^^^ Do. It.
This ☝❤☝❤
Yeah, definitely!
Probably not enough available information. ;)
And speaks perfect German. I wonder why.
Fun fact: he did the screenplay for the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice.
Probably the stupidest plot for a Bond movie ever so I wouldn't exactly boast that on my resume.
@@yarpen26 most bond plots are a bit ludicrous but that's bond for you.
@@theblackprince1346 This movie was not _a bit_ ludicrous, it was absurd all the way through. Take Bond's fake funeral from the beginning. He's lowered inside a coffin into the sea, then captured by a submarine. Cool. Only problem is, he has the entire freaking breathing gear on the whole time so the scheme is pointless from the get-go. And it only goes downhill from there: the Soviets and American diplomats are such unbelievable retards they could be tricked into going full-nuclear on one another by a five-year-old. And the likes of Octopussy proved that Bond Soviets did not have to be idiots.
@@yarpen26 so what's your favourite bond film then? Mine's From Russia with love.
@@theblackprince1346 Yeah, I like that one, too. Can't really say which one's my favorite, although I'm personally a rare fan of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I would have loved The Spy Who Loved Me were it not for that atrocious final act... And I happen to enjoy the second and third Brosnan movie over GoldenEye.
Two other interesting men of World War Two were Brian Horrocks and Leslie Morshead:
Brian Horrocks was in the Great War and captured by the Germans, he befriended one of the guards and made many escape attempts. He was sent to Russia in the civil war to aid the White Army where he engaged in a sword duel. He also fought in the Anglo-Irish War. When WW2 came around, Horrocks retreated and evacuated at Dunkirk in 1940, he then led troops in the North Africa Campaign in many battles. In June of 1943, he was seriously injured in an air raid, getting pierced in the upper chest, lungs, and stomach. A year later, he assumed command of thirty Corps in Normandy to take out the trapped German 7th Army in the Falaise Pocket. His troops moved twice the distance that the logistical planners prepared for, and commanded the British ground forces in Market Garden.
Sir Leslie James Morshead fought at Gallipoli,Passchendaele, and other battles in the Great War. He was the Australian commander of Australian troops at Tobruk, and went to lead in the Borneo campaign in the Pacific. His troops nicknamed him “Ming the merciless” after the comic and later 1936 Series villain in Flash Gordon.
During the Ardenne offensive Horrocks was in command of the British forces succesfully covering the Allied Northern flank and stopping the Germans to break through there. Appearantly when ordered to do so by Montgomery he stated; ''Well Monty, old cock. Let's try not to make a shambles out of it this time, shall we?.'' In which he left it unclear whether he referred to may and june 1940, or the failure of operation Market Garden.
His regiment was involved in war crimes during the Irish war of Independence
How interesting.
Also Ian Smith, who served as a pilot in Italy. He was shot down and had to evade the enemy. He hid among the local Italians in various villages for many weeks before making a run for the front line which was successful. He reunited with the British forces and continued to serve until the end of the war.
Let's not forget the great Christopher Lee, Saruman of _The Lord of the Rings_ fame.
Dahl's recollection of shaking so badly that he couldn't light his own cigarettes paralleled a story my older brother told me. He served two tours to Vietnam as a US Marine radio operator. On the flight home from his second tour, he said that he had to help several others light their cigarettes, because they were shaking so badly that they couldn't light their own. He said, "I was in pretty bad shape too, but at least I could light my own cigarettes." When he got home, he chain smoked four packs per day of unfiltered Camel cigarettes.
Four packs😟
the fact that indie pronounced llandaff correctly, will make every welshman smile
@2manynegativewaves XD
Dahl's father had gone to Wales, and his uncle first lived in France, but also came to Britain, and I guess to Llandaff to meet his brother. They were Norwegians, doing trade, setting up a business abroad, where chances were better than at home. That explains Roald Dahl's Norwegian name, he was born in Wales, and both his parents were from Norge, visiting their family ever summer holiday. I think you can safely say, he was not afraid to cross national borders, he had a great start in life. Except for his nose, in a car accident being a boy (they CALLED him Boy, not Roald!) his nose was hanging on a thread. Doctor placed it back, and miraculously, it cured. That very same nose got hurt again, crash landing.
My suggestion, do read his books on flying planes, Over to you, and Going Solo, was it? His autobiography in several short stories, Boy, is amazing. This man is very very very good in writing down how things were, without losing himself in huge numbers of words. Example? That car accident, he first tells us, they had a car, in those days that was something special. And he describes it. You know these convertable cars that have a windscreen out of glass? Like the Willy Jeeps? Well, our car had TWO of those windscreens, one for the driver, and one for the four passengers in the back. See? We have the picture! This was a huge car, not just an ordinary car. And his oldest sister just passed her test, so she was up front, fighting with levers and pedals for clutch and gearbox. And then there was that ditch.
Is everyone going to ignore the raw eroticism Indy presents in this video?
ill be pregnant with indy's child if he do it again
That's what happens when they let Indy appear in public undressed (read: without a tie).
@@Alex.HFA1 Once, during the Great War, he showed his arm tattoos!
There is raw eroticism in any video Indy presents.
Indy is really handsome and GENERALLY well dressed
which just makes the shock of 1979 redux even worse!
I remember reading "Going Solo" years ago in elementary, one of the things I remember was regarding his height being a problem when flying a fighter plane, and how some mechanic or someone else mentioned to him that he should consider switching to bombers which would have had more room for him to stretch his legs in.
Really hope you will do a bio on Pat Pattle, (mentioned in the video) who, despite getting killed so early in the war, was the RAF's top scoring ace. Also on Sailor Malan, who wrote the book on aerial combat (10 rules for air fighting) that contributed to winning the Battle of Britain, and also fought for human rights in South Africa after the war.
This is nit picky, but isn’t the RAF equivalent of a 2nd Lieutenant referred to as a “Pilot Officer”?
Yeah, in his book, Roald Dahl talks about his rank as a pilot officer.
@Percy Harry Hotspur Suspect the mistake happened because he was originally commissioned in the army before transferring to the RAF.
@Percy Harry Hotspur I did refer to it as a mistake, and mistakes do happen. I've been following this channel from the start and from some of the background stuff they've done I don't think any of the crew are English.
@Percy Harry Hotspur not quite. The rank is pilot officer; it is not capitalised as it is not a proper noun. However, when it is part of a title it is part of the proper noun so become capitalised, as in Pilot Officer Dahl or Plt Off Dahl.
Yes.
Dahls books were my favourite as a child.
I used to love his books as a child, and remember indulging heavily in his autobiographies. A really interesting guy by all accounts
Ah, the times when a doctor would light your cigarette!
I mean he did live until 1990. Cigarettes make you live longer 😉
My Grandfather is a year junior, and passed in 2004. He probably gave up smoking around 1957 and his first heart attack. He spent the War in signals, often a lineman. Not quite the front lines. But often shot at.
Would recommend his 'Over to You' stories dealing with his and other peoples experience of Air fighting complete with after death experiences,vengeful Greek islanders,jaded bomber pilots and lot lots more .
Thank you for the recommendation
On British TV there was a somewhat macabre series called "Tales of the Unexpected". Many if not all were based on Dahl stories and he also introduced them.
It's a coincidence, but there was a Luftwaffe fighter ace with 128 victories named Walther Dahl. Later in the war he specialised in "Sturmgruppe" attacks on American bombers in specially armed and armoured aircraft. An American ace of the Spanish Civil War named Harold "Whitey" Dahl fought on the Republican side.
I'd always heard that they were called "Sturmbock", or battering ram. Perhaps the larger unit which contained them was called a Sturmgruppe.
I watched them as a young teenager and loved them. Just looked them up some of them are on youtube
@@thebog11 Individually they were Sturmbock but they tried to attack in groups, which were called Sturmgruppen.
Especially when they launched frontal attacks on US bombers, the crews of the latter referred to their attacks as "company front".
Now there was a bloke that got stuff done, fighter pilot, spy,author and inventor .
what did he invent?
@@dangerouslytalented One of his children (Theo) was in an accident that caused him to suffer hydrocephalus (a dangerous accumulation of water on the brain) there was a mechanical shunt available to help drain the fluid but it wasn't very reliable causing pain and temporary blindness so Dahl set out to build a better one along with a friend with whom he flew model planes , its obsolete now but at the time it was a big improvement .
And Gigolo for the crown ;)
I remember reading alot of Roald Dahl when I was really young (8-10 years old).
Never had I imagined he saw so much action as an RAF pilot! Great video as always :)
I remember reading “Going Solo”, I really enjoyed it.
I loved this episode, great story of a fascinating man. Fighter ace turned childrens author. I loved reading his books when I was a kid and I'm glad that you guys did bio episode about him.
My goodness. What a life. Pilot, diplomat, spy and children's author all in 74 years.
Excellent pronunciation of Llandaf! Applause for great attention to detail
So many important figures of the 20th century fought in WW2, looking forward to seeing more videos like this
I absolutely love roald dahl, such an interesting story teller, my favorite author, such an interesting life.
Guy who made Little Red Riding Hood a skilled shooter and know tanning as well. "Please take note my lovely new wolfskin coat."
Thanks Indy and team. Ronald Dahl is one of my favourite authors especially Danny Champion of the World a great book for young children who enjoy being outdoors in nature and being a bit of a rapscallion! Tales of the Unexpected are great short stories. Hats off to the man and his many achievements. RIP.
I read a lot of his books as a child and I also remember Rik Mayall reading George's Marvelous Medicine on Jackonory.
Going Solo is an amazing book, one of my favourite stories from WWII.
I have very vivid memories of reading Boy and Going Solo as a child. I attribute my interest in WW2 and history as a whole to that experience. Roald Dahl was a truly gifted writer.
He lived in a town called Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, which is 4 miles from where I up. Aslo my mum typed up his daughter's dissertation for University and as a thank you my older brother and I got two autographed copies. One was The Twits and the other one was George's Marvelous Medicine.
I hoped you’d talk about him. I really enjoyed „Going Solo“.
I can remember reading his first memoir about his upbringing (I think called "boy") when I was about 11.
Oompa loompa, doompity doo. I’ve got a biography for you! Oompa loompa doompity dee. If you are wise, you’ll listen to me
He got the oompas from the colonizing they did in africa
Indy the hair tie is a different look. Keep up the awesome work
My son probably read something written by him in school, but I only heard of him when I saw a book by him at the school library. Interesting bio...
You have have to do Christopher Lee aka Saruman
Agreed
7:21 apparently his kids never heard of the spy thing until years and years after he died, and were amazed at him keeping it a secret after being a horrible gossip. Perhaps he wasn't that bad at keeping secrets after all
The best secrets are the ones we carry to our grave.
What a professional! A real model.
The best way to keep secrets without anyone noticing is to be chatty about every day life stuff. Nobody expects hidden secrets from someone sharing trivial stuff all the time ...
@@brag0001 no in fact; people who talk tend to keep talking and it just takes one slip up. already the fact he was literally a diplomat and an officer makes him an obvious target, one who holds secrets. so no amount of blabbermouth (what a dumb idea) would distract others from the obvious fact he has some secrets. judging from his mendacious prolix bios i would think the easiest way to get his secrets would be to stroke his ego. i would also try to play up all the abuse in boarding school if i felt i could use that to turn him. getting an idiot to blab is one thing but turning someone to your side is quite another! i doubt he could ever flip. but that boarding school hurt, and what did he get for it? Nothing! and his patriotism, you know where that led? broken nose, scars, more pain. What are you Dahl, a masochist or a sucker? Maybe both!
I don't think he could be played like a fiddle but that's how to try to crack that nut.
@@QuizmasterLaw things only slip when you are actually touching the topic. That's not what you do when you want to preserve the secret of even being involved in some topic.
Instead you present yourself passionate about totally innocent and unrelated things, example as a passionate fan of gardening, cooking or football.
I'm not saying that you can hide being a Diplomat and as such having access to classified information. But since everybody knows that maybe half the staff in an embassy is actually spies you can at least try to pass as one of the normal diplomatic core employees instead if being immediately being suspected to be part of the secret service department.
@@brag0001 keep blabbing please
This is what i miss from the good old days of indy on the great war! So good to see such well made biographys! I have no doubts that you will so keep up the simply amazing work!
These biography videos are great!
Thanks for this. Going Solo was one of my favourite books as a kid and I looked up to the image Dahl gave of himself. But watching this video, which lays out his life plainly, it is obvious he was not the kind of person to emulate. Are we all destined to outgrow our childhood heroes?
Probably..? That's a big question to answer before breakfast. Anyways, thanks for the compliments!
Its more like, in todays day and age, more than ever we learn so many of our heroes, idols have done some betrayal of basic morality in views, words and or actions by our own and really, the main collective standard, only a select few ever remained pure, untarnished in their image, like Mr. Rogers or Keanu Reeves.
Ah, the 40s, when your doctor would light your cigarette for you...
I'm really happy we had his biographies in our school library of a dutch high school
Now we won´t miss the tie review for this one because THAT is a 5/5 tie.
Dahl's biography Going Solo is fantastic. it gives a great insight into what the war was really like.
Roald Dahl also wrote screenplay for the 6th James Bond movie "You Only Live Twice".
If you live in the UK there is a good choice you'd have read "boy" and "going solo" at school..
Pretty sure it was curriculum in the early 90's at least, fairly candid view of his early life.
Honestly, I can totally see how his imagination could have been sparked by his service. I never knew any of this, great vid!
Thanks!
Really like these bios. It's interesting to see a single persons view of the war, and how it contrasts with the war as a whole.
Truly is, which is also why we like them so much!
Some time in the early very late 70's, mum got a call and we shot up to london in the late afternoon, apparently there was a very special reading happening, and she dragged me up to some place I still don't know where. Why? Roald Dahl, in an old fashioned drawing room, reading James and the Giant Peach to a room full of entranced "underprivileged kids", he definitely sat for more than 2 hours then and he seems to have enjoyed the attention. From what I gather it ran well over, didn't leave to gone midnight, got into all sorts of trouble at school the next day as I was half asleep!
Thank you Indy, for your passion for History.
The most important science for a species that tries to avoid its knowledge.
Thank you! Yeah don't worry, everyone here at TimeGhost knows how important history is.
Very interesting, as always. For the next video could you show the pictures for slightly longer? They are awesome to look at as well
When I was in school, I read a few of his stories, in Dutch, because I hadn't mastered English yet.
I remember the story "A Piece of Cake" (looked it up because in Dutch it was: 'Een makkie' (too easy)).
He flew Gloster Gladiator fighter planes, which looked a bit like the WW2 Lysander, only much more fragile and smaller.
According to Dahl, the Gladiator plane had a reputation among pilots of combustibility.
'If someone would say, I am going to build something that will burn better and longer than anything else, he would probably have come up with a Gladiator.'
Translated from how I remember it was in Dutch.
The Luftwaffe pilot standing next to the shot down Hawker Hurricane is a famous fighter ace named Hans Joachim Marseille who was quite a character and worth reading about.
My father has or had a copy of Gremlins as a boy here in Melbourne Australia and I read it a couple of times. The Gremlin characters are very similar to one who appeared in a Bugs Bunny WWII episode.
Fantastic Episode Indeed !!!
Little suggestion for a biography - British actor Arnold Ridley. Served 1915-17 in WW1, discharged after being severely wounded at the Somme. Re-enlisted in WW2, commissioned as a 'conducting officer', riding herd on journalists visiting troops during the 'phoney war', being evacuated from Boulogne on the 23rd of May, he was again discharged on medical grounds, he relinquished his commission and joined his local Home Guard unit, and - having taken up acting and writing - volunteered with ENSA.
Bonus factoid, his great-niece is Daisy Ridley.
Also played Private Godfrey in the TV series 'Dads Army'.
@@gwtpictgwtpict4214 I didn't want to do *all* their research for them ;)
Great episode!
Thank you. Learned a few things.
Great video guys!
yet another awesome video.. cheers ..
You're very welcome!
When he describes shaking after the battle it reminded me of a couple of incidents when I was a police officer. I watched officers go through situations completely calm and in control, only to be shaking badly afterward. Adrenaline does strange and magical things to you.
Awesome episode! I hope that other aviators like the writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (of the petit prince fame) gets covered too. An episode of the war time exploits of Sir Christopher Lee, the fleming brothers (Ian and Peter) and David Niven would be also wonderful. Especially the latter and his deception operation with fake general montgomery body double.
All of them would be excellent picks!
A great book by saint exupery wind sand and stars unfortunately he was shot down flying a p38 reconnaissance plane
Thank you for mentioning Dahl's anti-Semitism and not whitewashing over it. This doesn't detract from his heroic exploits fighting the Nazis in World War II, but rather show this talented and enigmatic man had some serious flaws as well.
I think you should make a special about Bolesław Romanowski en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolesław_Romanowski
A polish submarine commander who served alongside the Royal Navy.
His personal wartime story has been put to paper in a thrilling book "torpeda w celu!" (torpedo in target). His wartime vitae goes through real highs and lows, from sneaking through great belt out of Baltic sea on ORP wilk, then taking command of ORP Jastrząb that was sunk by the British in a friendly fire accident while escorting the pq17, then assuming command of ORP Dzik, a british build sub, which he commanded while stationed in Malta. And returning to Poland as cpt of the ORP Błyskawica that is today a museum ship in Gdynia. He suffered bad treatment by communists after war and today the 3rd submarine flotilla of the polish navy bears his name.
I think if you research him more, you will find it utterly interesting!
Loved the episode! Hope you are all doing well.
keep up the amazing work and see you next time ;)
I think that Indy has slightly underplayed Dahl’s solo flight to Greece from North Africa. Dahl returned to his squadrons airfield from hospital only to be told that they had flown to Greece and not only that he was assigned to join them with another Hurricane which was a plane that he had never flown before! If I remember correctly he was allowed an hour’s familiarisation flight and then sent on his way with a roadmap of Greece and a basic heading from Africa towards Greece. He was one of maybe three of his squadron pilots to survive that campaign of the eighteen young men who flew.
I really enjoyed reading Boy and Going SOlo as a child, and I highly recommend them to anyone, as they are fairly easy reads, but well worth it at the same time. As Indy says, they are not so historically accurate, and liberties may have been taken to make it more entertaining, but if you keep this in mind, its still interesting and informative.
You know who would make a great Biography Count Ciano.
I listened to the audiobook of britan's efforts to inspire america to join them in WW2 and Dahl's role in that. It was well written and worth a "read." Something Astrid may have covered in her "Spies and Ties" series but may be worth looking into if she hasn't already. 🕵️♀️🕵️♂️👔👔
A lovely video, and I just got to the start....1 minute after uploading :D!
You should consider an episode on Virginia Hall. One of the best spies
In the war.
We will definitely cover her at some point!
I've got a really interesting character for you. He is staff captain Václav Morávek. He was devout catholic and pre-war army champion in pistol shooting, which got him nickname God's gunsliger. He was part of resistance group Tři králové (Three kings) in occupied Czechoslovakia and was enemy no.1 for Prague's office of Gestapo. He earned his reputation, aside from his resistance actions, for personally delivering each week a new copy of resistance magazine V Boj to the HQ of Gestapo and by humiliating Oskar Fleischer, Gestapo officer tasked with capturing him and his group, when he dressed up as German officer and went to the Gestapo bar and asked Fleischer if he could light his cigarette, which Fleischer did. Morávek thanked him, left the bar and wrote detailed letter to Fleischers boss Hans-Ulrich Geschke about it. There is a lot more interesting stuff he did, including asasination attempt of Heinrich Himmler, but I'll let Indy and Sparty to tell you about them if they decide to make episode about him.
He went to Start Peters boys school Weston super mare in the Twenties
in Somerset.
The school no longer exists but their is a plaque in his memory.
Roald Dahl was also an avid photographer, including snapping pictures of both his time in East Africa and interesting sites in Iraq and Egypt. He recounts the story of at least one of his photos in his autobiographical "Boy" (it's also not hard to find the inspiration of some of his more memorable fictional characters such as Miss Trunchbull in that book): www.roalddahl.com/blog/2018/march/roald-dahl-the-photographer
Charlie y la fabrica de chocolate es mi libro favorito!
Hmmmmmm INDY CHESTHAIR *heavy breathing*
Since we're talking about pilots, I have some new suggestions: Hans Ulrich Rudell, Adolf Galland, Ivan Kozhedub, Alexander Pokryshkin, Douglas Bader, David McCampbell, Clive Caldwell and Witoldz Urbanowicz
I must make a model of Clive Caldwell's Spitfire. Whilst the name on the side refers to a shark it has alot of relevance to me.👴
@@mugofbrown6234 I'd love to have a model of Pappy Boyington's Corsair
I imagine how a bed time story would be by an ss veteran.
"And then we killed them all, the end"
Or a US Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan vet!
Dude that's hilarious 😂😂😂
To be fair, any country with an 'imperial past' will have such stories.
Great Britain, France, even Holland and Belgium have their incredibly bloody warstories of the many wars fought in their colonies against evil independence fighters.
@@AudieHolland TBH they don't tell those stories (Looks at the granpa of a friend who is an ss veteran).
This video: Relases
Me: A suprise to be sure but a welcome one!
A blow to the head can give one the illusion of moving in slow motion-as i remember from being slugged.
you should do one on a south african fighter pilot called Pattle, who might be the Commonwealth top scorer with an alleged 40 plus, kia in Greece .
Thanks Indy - I could see you really enjoyed this story - have you read Spike Milligan's story from WW2?
No I haven't! And I love Spike!
@@WorldWarTwo
Here is a brief description:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler:_My_Part_in_His_Downfall
www.amazon.com/Adolf-Hitler-Part-Downfall-Memoirs/dp/0140035206
Hope Spike's family is still getting royalties.
Love Ronald Dahl. He’s famous for his children’s books but he also wrote a number of dark-themed short stories.
not a word about his "adult literature"? "My Uncle Oswald", for example, is very inspired by his time seducing heiresses for example
Some of his "Tale of the Unexpected" stories are definitely from the darker side of human experience.
"Switch Bitch" was another adult literature book (well, a collection of four erotic short stories).
Should do Evelyn Waugh
J.R.R. Tolkien fought in the first world war. Roald Dahl fought in the second world war. See a pattern?
I can only conclude Shakespeare was selected via a time-travel conscription program to fight in the Interdimensional Human-Zarkon Wars of 4059.
not really
@@darthvaderreviews6926 I personally believe Shakespeare is in fact an immortal and fought in basically every war in human history. And is cursed with prescient knowledge of all human conflict to come.
I guess J.K Rowling must have served in the Gulf War
@zain mudassir Hemingway was a volunteer ambulance driver in Italy. He was close to the action much of the time and shared the danger with the soldiers, but he didn't actually fight.
You should read his autobiography 'Going Solo' In this he details his entire career as a RAF pilot in Greece and Syria.
Blast those book editors Ronald .
Roald Dahl dying is one of my first memories.
You should do a bio on Mad Jack Churchill probably around of d-day
Hello Team, as always top notch work. Would it be possible to do a video on VMF-214 (More commonly known as the Black Sheep)? My father is a big fan of the 70s TV show and would get a kick out of it. Thanks again.
Maybe. But if we do then it wouldn't be for some time
Indy is looking HAWT!
I’ve read em all and as an adult!
He passed his pilot training "with flying colours" - caught that, I did!
Ah yes! The chosen one!
There s the French author Romain Gary who was also a pilot and had a very interesting story
Me: *watches video on baseball David Dahl*
RUclips: "watch this cool video on Roald Dahl"
Me: ok
Slipstream is an excellent band! I highly recommend their music.
Interesting. I didn't even know about his existence.
Looking well brother!
If only Dr Seuss was in the RAF it would be the team up of the century...
Hard to believe that the author of Willy Wonka and James and the Giant Peach was such a bada$$ in WWII and married Patricia Neal to boot.
I enjoyed this. Another bada$$ star back then was Hedy Lamarr. You should do a story on that amazing woman's life.
Other greats that you could highlight: Jimmy Stewart, George McGovern, Don Rickles, Ian Fleming, and last but certainly not least Audie Murphy. The baddest bada$$ of them all.
And for a war hero that has gone largely unnoticed.....do the story of Paul "Pappy" Gunn.
Interesting picks! Audie Murphy is also covered on the Sabaton History channel: ruclips.net/video/n0PriUnAJ3U/видео.html