Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Napoleon Bonaparte's career was defined
Speaker 1: by success over sixty battles fought and only eight losses.
Speaker 1: That's a record very few can live up to. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's because he planned obsessively, analyzing every detail and preparing
Speaker 1: for every potential outcome. Perhaps it was because he was
Speaker 1: annoyingly practical, having expanded on tactics put forth by his
Speaker 1: predecessors in order to carry out his grand plans for conquest.
Speaker 1: Or heck, maybe it was both of those things. Despite
Speaker 1: napoleon strategic genius, though there were some battles he simply
Speaker 1: couldn't prepare for, no matter how long he researched. In
Speaker 1: one instance, the opposing army was too unpredictable, too ferocious,
Speaker 1: too difficult to comprehend, and it resulted in one of
Speaker 1: the most devastating losses of his military career. In July
Speaker 1: of eighteen oh seven, Napoleon's French army had just won
Speaker 1: a major battle against the Russian Empire. With that victory,
Speaker 1: he brought an end to the hostilities between both sides,
Speaker 1: which resulted in a peace treaty one signed. Napoleon decided
Speaker 1: the best course of action would be to celebrate. He
Speaker 1: instructed his chief of staff, Alexander Bertier, to organize a
Speaker 1: luncheon for the highest ranking men in the French military.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't just a luncheon, No, these men were soldiers.
Speaker 1: They didn't want to eat. They wanted to kill the
Speaker 1: food that they would enjoy together, and nothing would have
Speaker 1: been more sporting than a good old fashioned rabbit hunt. Bertier,
Speaker 1: not someone to carry out a task for his boss,
Speaker 1: lightly arranged cages teeming with thousands of rabbits around the
Speaker 1: perimeter of a vast grassy meadow. After a period of
Speaker 1: mingling and talking shop, the men picked up their rifles,
Speaker 1: boarded a carriage, and set out for the hunt. Once
Speaker 1: the men arrived, the cages were opened and the rabbits
Speaker 1: hopped into the field. Except they didn't scatter. They weren't
Speaker 1: afraid at all. They took one look at Napoleon and
Speaker 1: his hunting party and their agenda became clear. The hunters
Speaker 1: became the hunted, an ocean of bunnies charged toward them,
Speaker 1: waves of fur and ears coming for the seasoned French officers,
Speaker 1: and rather than aiming their guns, they simply watched and laughed.
Speaker 1: After all, what kind of harm could a bunch of
Speaker 1: rabbits do? As an aside, I'm sure most of you
Speaker 1: have heard the phrase a murder of crows right. A
Speaker 1: murder is a quasi technical term for a group of crows,
Speaker 1: like a pride of lions. For rabbits, the options are
Speaker 1: a bit less entertaining, a warren, a herd, or even
Speaker 1: a husk. But my personal favorite is a trip, and
Speaker 1: that's what Napoleon's officers were facing down, a trip of bunnies.
Speaker 1: As the incursion grew closer, Napoleon's good nature quickly turned
Speaker 1: to one of fear. The rabbits surrounded the hunters, climbing
Speaker 1: up their legs and torsos as the men tried hopelessly
Speaker 1: to brush them off. They used their writing crops, nearby sticks,
Speaker 1: and anything else they could get their hands on to
Speaker 1: beat back the onslaught of furry fiends, but nothing worked.
Speaker 1: The rabbits kept attacking, and Napoleon, not one to run
Speaker 1: from battle, lightly new defeat. When he saw it, he
Speaker 1: had no choice but to retreat, so he and the
Speaker 1: men jumped back into their carriage, hoping to escape. But
Speaker 1: the bunnies seemed to have learned some military strategy of
Speaker 1: their own, like divide and conquer. They split into two
Speaker 1: groups and lengked the carriage on all sides. Some even
Speaker 1: managed to make it inside as it was rolling away.
Speaker 1: It wasn't until the carriage was out of sight when
Speaker 1: the animals finally calmed down. The most brilliant military man
Speaker 1: in generations had been outdone by an invading army of rabbits.
Speaker 1: But at least Napoleon had someone else to blame for
Speaker 1: the fiasco, his chief of staff, Bartier. You see, on
Speaker 1: such short notice, it had been impossible for Bartier to
Speaker 1: find enough wild hairs to satisfy a party full of hunters,
Speaker 1: so he'd put out word to the local farmers that
Speaker 1: he wanted to buy their rabbits. Only too happy to
Speaker 1: oblige a man so prominent within Napoleon's army, the farmers
Speaker 1: had agreed and sold him all the rabbits they had.
Speaker 1: If only Bertier had done his research, he would have
Speaker 1: learned that farm raised rabbits were conditioned. They had come
Speaker 1: to identify the presence of a human being as a
Speaker 1: sign that food was on its way. They weren't attacking
Speaker 1: so much as they were looking for their next meal.
Speaker 1: And a Poleon, well, he suffered the most humiliating defeats
Speaker 1: of his career. One might even say it tripped him up.
Speaker 1: Not long after Italy declared war against France and Britain
Speaker 1: during World War Two, the country became a major target
Speaker 1: for Allied bombers. Not of all those targets, Naples held
Speaker 1: the title as the most bombed Italian city of the war.
Speaker 1: Hospitals and churches were leveled, residential neighborhoods became battle grounds,
Speaker 1: and roughly sixty Italian civilians had been killed in bombing
Speaker 1: raids by the end of the war. While the country
Speaker 1: bounced back relatively quickly, so much had already been lost
Speaker 1: and would never be recovered. The bombers had carried out
Speaker 1: the attacks as a form of liberation from tyranny form fascism,
Speaker 1: from the clutches of an autocratic dictator. Swooping in, dropping
Speaker 1: their payloads and flying back to their respective basis. Bombing
Speaker 1: raids became standard fair during the war, but pilots always
Speaker 1: had unpredictable factors to deal with. Sure, there were enemy
Speaker 1: planes to watch out for, as well as return fire
Speaker 1: from soldiers on the ground, but a pilot's deadliest enemy
Speaker 1: inside or outside of war has always been the weather.
Speaker 1: Blue skies could turn gray in seconds, and suddenly a
Speaker 1: routine flight home met negotiating high winds and lightning while
Speaker 1: also struggling to remain in the air, and for one
Speaker 1: particular B twenty four bomber nicknamed Lady be Good, the
Speaker 1: weather would prove to be a more dangerous foe than
Speaker 1: any Nazi. Lady Big Good's crew had just wrapped up
Speaker 1: a bombing run over Naples on the afternoon of April
Speaker 1: ninette when it ran into trouble. The mission had been simple.
Speaker 1: A squadron of twelve bombers would fly over the city first,
Speaker 1: followed by another group of thirteen bombers right after. At
Speaker 1: just after three pm, Lady be Good had taken off
Speaker 1: from Benghazi, Libya, when a sandstorm kicked up, making visibility
Speaker 1: almost impossible. The B twenty four fell behind from the
Speaker 1: rest of the planes, but eventually made it to Naples
Speaker 1: several hours later, along with three others. When their mission
Speaker 1: was over, they turned around and headed back to base,
Speaker 1: but Lady be Goods navigation system started acting up. The pilot,
Speaker 1: Lieutenant William Hatton, radioed for a landing location, but it
Speaker 1: never came. Hatton flew directly over the base, taking his
Speaker 1: crew and his plane deep into the Sahara Desert. Hours
Speaker 1: passed and fuel was running low. With no way to
Speaker 1: land safely, Hatton instructed his men to put on their
Speaker 1: parachutes and abandon the plane. At two am, nine men
Speaker 1: jumped from the Lady be Good, allowing the plane to
Speaker 1: fly solo to its final resting place in the dark
Speaker 1: of night. Rescue efforts were launched the next day, with
Speaker 1: teams scouring the desert and the Mediterranean Sea for any
Speaker 1: signs of wreckage. When they found nothing, the men and
Speaker 1: their lady were presumed lost. It wasn't until fifteen years
Speaker 1: later when British petroleum workers spotted something from the air
Speaker 1: over the calin Shio Sand Sea. They've been scouting locations
Speaker 1: for potential drilling, and radioed authorities at a local air
Speaker 1: base about their discovery. No one had any idea what
Speaker 1: was out there. There were no records of any wrecks
Speaker 1: that far into the desert. A few months later, more
Speaker 1: reports of a down plane started pouring into the base,
Speaker 1: so on ma of nineteen fifty nine, a recovery team
Speaker 1: started investigating the claims, and there it was, the Lady
Speaker 1: be Good, broken into two pieces, but otherwise intact. The
Speaker 1: plane had been remarkably well preserved, no doubt due to
Speaker 1: the dry desert environment. The machine guns still worked, there
Speaker 1: were still food and water rations on board. Even a
Speaker 1: thermis of tea had been found, with the liquid inside
Speaker 1: still drinkable. By all appearances, it seemed the crew had
Speaker 1: abandoned the plane midflights, but never found her again. In
Speaker 1: the winter of the following year, the U. S. Army
Speaker 1: began sweeping the desert for signs of the plane's crew.
Speaker 1: They found the bodies of five of the men, including
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Hatton, While most of the others were eventually discovered
Speaker 1: later having been buried in the sand, only the gunner staff,
Speaker 1: Sergeant Vernon Moore, remained unaccounted for. After Lady be Goods discovery,
Speaker 1: some of her parts were sent back to the United
Speaker 1: States to be evaluated by teams of engineers. The military,
Speaker 1: hoping to save a little money saw an opportunity to
Speaker 1: repurpose those parts on other aircraft, a decision they would
Speaker 1: soon come to regret. Transmitters from the Lady Be Good
Speaker 1: were installed in a C fifty four Skymaster transport plane
Speaker 1: that was forced to abandon its cargo in an emergency
Speaker 1: landing after suffering from propeller problems. Another transport plane was
Speaker 1: fitted with the Bombers radio receiver before it disappeared into
Speaker 1: the Mediterranean. Even inconsequential pieces from the Lady Be Good
Speaker 1: seemed cursed after being installed another aircraft, a single engine
Speaker 1: prop plane, crashed off the coast of Libya, almost all
Speaker 1: of it lost beneath the waves, except for an arm
Speaker 1: rest that had washed ashore, an arm rest that had
Speaker 1: come from the Lady Be Good. Despite its amazing resilience,
Speaker 1: it seems that the Lady Be Good just couldn't live
Speaker 1: up to its name, it's legacy. After all, it was
Speaker 1: more than a little bad. I hope you've enjoyed today's
Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
Speaker 1: me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works, I
Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lord, which is a podcast,
Speaker 1: book series, and television show and you can learn all
Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.