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Speaker 1: I'm Patrick K.

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Speaker 2: O'donald, and I'm hosting America's Christmas Combat History of Christmas,

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Speaker 2: and we're going to go back in time to our

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Speaker 2: most important Christmas, the Christmas of seventeen seventy six, where

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Speaker 2: all could have been lost, but all was one in

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Speaker 2: a series of crucial victories, ten crucial jays that will change.

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Speaker 1: The course of history.

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Speaker 2: Let's go back first to the summer of seventeen seventy six,

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Speaker 2: the Battle of Brooklyn, the Battle of Long Island. Were

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Speaker 2: a massive British force, most of the entire British Army

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Speaker 2: and Navy congregate in New York, over thirty five thousand,

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Speaker 2: along with their German allies, a crush the nascent United States,

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Speaker 2: which is now only about a month a little more

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Speaker 2: than a month old after the signing of the Declaration

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Speaker 2: of Independence. This wasn't a situation of negotiation. It was

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Speaker 2: a situation of we were going to crush the Americans

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Speaker 2: as they had done in all the other empire's history.

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Speaker 2: They had always won any kind of rebellion or revolution,

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Speaker 2: and they planned the British Empire had planned to do

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Speaker 2: it again. And a massive important hub was New York City.

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Speaker 2: Because of its strategic location and its ability to make

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Speaker 2: to sally forth from different parts to the various parts

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Speaker 2: of the colony. It was one of the largest cities

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Speaker 2: in the colonies of the time, and the British rolled

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Speaker 2: up their entire fleet, or two thirds of their fleet,

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Speaker 2: and much of their army.

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Speaker 1: Along with thousands of German or Hessian volunteers. They land at.

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Speaker 2: Long Island, and it's the summer of eighteen seventeen seventy six,

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Speaker 2: it's August, and they make a sort of an epic

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Speaker 2: attack the American lines. Half the army is in New

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Speaker 2: York and half is in Brooklyn or Long Island, and

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Speaker 2: the army is a raid where it's on a long

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Speaker 2: spur called the Heights of Guannas. This is current day

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Speaker 2: Greenwood Cemetery. It's one of the greatest cemeteries in the

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Speaker 2: United States, where many many notables are have their final

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Speaker 2: resting place. But it's also the scene of an epic battle,

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Speaker 2: the Battle of Brooklyn, and it's here on the night

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Speaker 2: of August twenty seventh, twenty sixth, seventeen seventy six, that

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Speaker 2: the battle begins in a watermelon patch where British skirmishers

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Speaker 2: are out and they encounter Edward Hans Pennsylvanian's riflemen in

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Speaker 2: a watermelon patch. The British want the lemon, the melons

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Speaker 2: for obvious reasons, and then a small battle occurs there

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Speaker 2: in that patch. But it's really it just touches off

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Speaker 2: a much larger operation. The British are conducting a massive

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Speaker 2: flanking maneuver around the Heights Iguanas, with General Cornwallace in

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Speaker 2: the lead, along with General Clinton and Lord Howe, and

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Speaker 2: they flank the American lines while another force approaches from

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Speaker 2: the from the towards the Heights Iguantas to pin down

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Speaker 2: the Americans. It's a classic hammer and anvil maneuver where

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Speaker 2: they're trying to smash the Americans and the force that's

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Speaker 2: the flanking maneuver maneuver is unseen. They attack, you know,

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Speaker 2: they move out in the in the midnight hours of

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Speaker 2: the of the twenty six and twenty seventh, and they

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Speaker 2: move around and it's that morning though a General Grant

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Speaker 2: with a British attack the main line of resistance at

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Speaker 2: the Heights of One. I said, it's here that the

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Speaker 2: Washington's immortals earn immortal fame. I wrote this book, which

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Speaker 2: is a multiple best seller. It's been through about twelve reprintings.

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Speaker 2: It's here that they conduct a rear guard that literally

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Speaker 2: saves the United States. The British are attacking from the

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Speaker 2: flank and the front, and it's near a stone house

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Speaker 2: that they lead a series of charges that allow the

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Speaker 2: American Army to escape back to their entrenchments in Brooklyn Heights.

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Speaker 2: And it's tire that this epic stand, which is, as

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Speaker 2: one historian at the time would say, it was an

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Speaker 2: hour more important in our history than any other.

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Speaker 1: They make the stand.

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Speaker 2: It's in blood, and there's about four hundred Marylanders, nearly

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Speaker 2: the entire force is annihilated or captured. And what drew

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Speaker 2: me to this book, like all the other books I've written,

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Speaker 2: is it found me. And I found a rusted old

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Speaker 2: sign near that area that I mentioned, that battleground, near

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Speaker 2: that house, which says here lies two hundred and seventy

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Speaker 2: six Marylanders, Maryland heroes. And I wanted to know more.

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Speaker 2: Where did they you know, where are they buried? And

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Speaker 2: the answer is, we don't know. They're buried in a

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Speaker 2: mass grave in and around that area. And it's one

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Speaker 2: of the great mysteries in American In American history of

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Speaker 2: where these men are located. Many of them were captured

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Speaker 2: and put on prison ships, and their bodies were never

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Speaker 2: seen again. Because these the prison ships were like literally

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Speaker 2: floating concentration camps. Most of the men that went on

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Speaker 2: the ships never survived. The fast forward a little bit

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Speaker 2: and it's Washington has to make decision does he stand

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Speaker 2: and fight or does he retreat? And he has a

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Speaker 2: war council, you know, in the middle of a massive

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Speaker 2: lightning storm, and they decide to retreat. And it's here

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Speaker 2: that the story of the Marbleheaders relates directly to the

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Speaker 2: Christmas seventeen seventy six. It's here that their first epic

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Speaker 2: evacuation occurs. They affect an American dunkirk. They pull off

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Speaker 2: the entire American army in extraordinary circumstances. The massive British

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Speaker 2: army of twenty five thousand men is the entire front

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Speaker 2: of Brooklyn defenses. They face this army. The British Navy

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Speaker 2: is in the East River and about to sail behind

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Speaker 2: the American defenses and crush it.

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Speaker 1: It's here at.

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Speaker 2: This time that the United States, which is only forty

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Speaker 2: five days old, is in its greatest peril because Washington's

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Speaker 2: army is potentially going to be destroyed. Washington is about

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Speaker 2: to be captured, and a miracle needs to occur, and

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Speaker 2: that's exactly what God provides. The Marbleheaders, the most experienced

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Speaker 2: seamen or mariners in the Continental Army, are given the

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Speaker 2: task of bringing the army off ten thousand men, along

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Speaker 2: with his horses and cannon, and somehow pull off the

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Speaker 2: impossible in the middle of the prying British eyes and

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Speaker 2: loyalists and everybody else.

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Speaker 1: In the middle of the night.

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Speaker 2: The Washington orders the men that they are going to

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Speaker 2: be attacking, when in reality they're moving back towards the boats.

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Speaker 2: Glover is only given a few hours. They round up

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Speaker 2: all the boats that they can and they begin the

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Speaker 2: task of bringing off the army somehow into New York

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Speaker 2: City itself, and it doesn't go well at first. The

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Speaker 2: water in the river is so treacherous. There's so many

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Speaker 2: currents that they literally are not able to move the

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Speaker 2: boats across, and they have to abandon the operation. They

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Speaker 2: try to find Washington to call it off, and he

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Speaker 2: can't be found. And miraculously he can't be found because

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Speaker 2: they move forward with the operation and it's a race

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Speaker 2: against time. They only have about six or seven hours

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Speaker 2: to move ten thousand men across the river.

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Speaker 1: And it's not just one time.

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Speaker 2: They have to go back nearly a dozen times with

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Speaker 2: these boats under the eyes of the entire a large

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Speaker 2: portion of the British Navy somehow, which is parked not

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Speaker 2: far on the on the East River, and they are

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Speaker 2: doing that back and forth. The British Army is about

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Speaker 2: to pounce in front of them. The Navy is about

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Speaker 2: to potentially be unleashed, but miraculously, the winds don't favor

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Speaker 2: the Navy to move behind the fortifications, and they're able

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Speaker 2: to move more men across. But daylight is coming, and

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Speaker 2: it's here that the hand of God, as the men say,

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Speaker 2: shows itself in a fog. A miraculous fog sets in

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Speaker 2: and screens the movement of the remaining boats, and they

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Speaker 2: are able to evacuate the rest of the force back

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Speaker 2: to New York City. And it's from there that the

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Speaker 2: American Army sustains one massive defeat after another, and it's

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Speaker 2: it's a situation of treat and defeat, the greatest being

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Speaker 2: at Fort Washington, where, if you are familiar with the

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Speaker 2: Fort Washington, bridge. The base of that bridge was a

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Speaker 2: portion of it was a massive fortification that stretched over

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Speaker 2: a mile. It was in a massive American fortification known

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Speaker 2: as Fort Washington, and they had a number of redoubts

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Speaker 2: and defensive areas. There was a star fort and it's

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Speaker 2: here that the Americans make an epic stand. But what

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Speaker 2: they don't know is that the Adjujant, the second in command,

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Speaker 2: had deserted only a few days earlier and delivered the

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Speaker 2: entire plans of the fort, all of its weak points

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Speaker 2: and where the forces were positioned. So the British knew

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Speaker 2: exactly where to attack, and that's exactly what they did

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Speaker 2: in mid November, and they started to to roll up

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Speaker 2: the fort and roll up many of the men inside it.

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Speaker 2: The Washington's Immortals and the Indispensables, which is the book

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Speaker 2: about the Marbleheaders. Is all based on original primary source documents,

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Speaker 2: one being pension applications and one of the great stories

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Speaker 2: of this book both books, actually is a pension application

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Speaker 2: from an individual that was lucky enough to escape for Washington,

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Speaker 2: and he talks about how the fort is being surrounded.

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Speaker 2: They find a rowboat and they row across the Hudson River,

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Speaker 2: and they make their way to New Jersey, where Washington

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Speaker 2: is in a house overlooking the entire battle through his

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Speaker 2: spyglass and he sees Washington.

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Speaker 1: Distraught, Washington, and he sees Washington with.

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Speaker 2: Tears in his eyes as the fort has fallen and

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Speaker 2: many of his men are run through literally a gatlet

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Speaker 2: where British and German soldiers form a gauntlant and the

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Speaker 2: men are run through the gatland. They're kicked, beaten, in

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Speaker 2: some cases, bannetted, and robbed of their personal possessions. This

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Speaker 2: is just one of the defeats that Washington's army faces

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Speaker 2: as they make their long retreat back through White Plains

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Speaker 2: where they make a stand as well, and eventually they

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Speaker 2: cross over and make their way through New Jersey. And

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Speaker 2: it's the British army that's never too far behind, as

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Speaker 2: they're felling trees and making their way towards the safety,

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Speaker 2: at least the relative safety they think of the Delaware

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Speaker 2: River and the farms of Sylvania. And it's here that

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Speaker 2: they're only just a little bit ahead of the British Army.

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Speaker 2: That they escape across the Delaware and they are making

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Speaker 2: they're making preparations. This is a situation where they escape

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Speaker 2: one demise, but they now face another. And this is

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Speaker 2: the most This is known as the Crisis, some of

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Speaker 2: the most crucial days in American history, because everything was collapsing.

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Speaker 2: The enlistments for the men were about to expire. Washington

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Speaker 2: was about to lose his entire army. Hyperinflation racked the colonies,

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Speaker 2: Prices for food skyrocketed.

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Speaker 1: The cause was about to be lost.

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Speaker 2: Many Americans in New Jersey had in other areas, had

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Speaker 2: taken a pardon from the king, and we're now turning

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Speaker 2: sides and everything was being lost. The potential for the

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Speaker 2: entire war ending was very much in the month of

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Speaker 2: December seventeen seventy six, and it's here that Washington plans

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Speaker 2: one of the greatest comebacks in military history, the crossing

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Speaker 2: of the Delaware, and that will change the course of

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Speaker 2: the entire Revolutionary War.

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Speaker 1: It's a epic stand.

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Speaker 2: It's an epic battle, one of the greatest battles in

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Speaker 2: American history, the Battle for Trenton, and it's appropriately Washington's

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Speaker 2: call sign or code words for that night were victory

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Speaker 2: or death, Good morning.

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Speaker 1: And Merry Christmas. I'm Patrick K.

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Speaker 2: O'Donnell, combat historian and best selling author hosting the combrat

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Speaker 2: History of Christmas with the Worm Today. Steve is traveling,

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Speaker 2: so I'm hosting it alone. But we're talking about the

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Speaker 2: combat history of Christmas and our most important history of Christmas,

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Speaker 2: which is the Christmas of seventeen seventy six in the

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Speaker 2: counter attack at Trenton, which changes history in the world.

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Speaker 2: And it's at in and around in Pennsylvania that Washington,

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Speaker 2: near Trenton on the Pennsylvania side, decides to mount one

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Speaker 2: of the greatest comebacks in military history, an attack on

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Speaker 2: the garrison of Hessian troops. These are German mercenaries that

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Speaker 2: are based in Trenton. He's got one problem though, He

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Speaker 2: somehow has to get across the Delaware River.

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Speaker 1: And this is a very.

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Speaker 2: Difficult obstacle, and it would they Washington decides to launch

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Speaker 2: the attack or the counter attack on Christmas Day. What

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Speaker 2: they don't know is that there will be a raging

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Speaker 2: Nor'easter that day that will make it almost impassable. But

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Speaker 2: days before the planning he asks the most experienced mariner

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Speaker 2: in the Continental Army, John Glover.

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Speaker 1: Who's Who's who.

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Speaker 2: Initially has the Marblehead Regiment with the indispensables.

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Speaker 1: He's now a brigade commander.

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Speaker 2: If it's even possible to cross the river, you know,

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Speaker 2: you have to make making an assault. Crossing on a

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Speaker 2: river against an enemy force is one of the most

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Speaker 2: difficult things imaginable in military in a military maneuver, and

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Speaker 2: it's it was compounded by the climate that day.

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Speaker 1: But they don't know at the time if it's even doable.

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Speaker 2: So he asked Lover, if it's possible, Lover says to

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Speaker 2: General Washington, don't worry, my boys can handle it. And

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Speaker 2: that's exactly what they do. They pull off the impossible. Washington,

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Speaker 2: who's kind of known for complicated strategies, has three prongs

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Speaker 2: of an attack that are to attack the Trent And

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Speaker 2: garrison under the command of Johann Raw. And Raw is

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Speaker 2: an extremely experienced commander that has been, you know, since

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Speaker 2: his childhood a soldier and a very very good one.

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Speaker 2: He had at what planes, he had led the attack

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Speaker 2: and he even took He led the attack at Fort Washington,

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Speaker 2: which I mentioned earlier and was, you know, incredibly important.

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Speaker 2: It played an important role in seizing the American garrison there.

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Speaker 2: This man's an incredible war hero. He's also a very

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Speaker 2: very skilled commander and knows military strategy, but he's left

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Speaker 2: with a very difficult task. He somehow has to defend

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Speaker 2: this isolated garrison. New Jersey has a number of little

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Speaker 2: of smaller isolated garrisons that are tying down the British

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Speaker 2: gains there, and he is, he is his nine hundred

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Speaker 2: or ce men are garrisoning the Trenton area. They're on

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Speaker 2: constant alert for American attacks and raids, and he has

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Speaker 2: given information by British intelligence. There's a spy in Washington's camp.

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Speaker 2: The General Grant has that they will attack on Christmas,

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Speaker 2: so he's he's warned. His men are armed, they sleep

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Speaker 2: in their arms and in their uniforms. This is not

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Speaker 2: the Christmas story that you know many children's book have

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Speaker 2: of these men being drunk on Christmas and not not

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Speaker 2: ready to do battle. It's just the opposite. They're they're

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Speaker 2: very trained, they're they're ready to go, but they're also

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Speaker 2: worn out because the Americans had rated them multiple times.

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Speaker 2: And that night he's warned, he's given uh, it's really

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Speaker 2: quite extraordinary story. He's given intelligence by a loyalist that

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Speaker 2: the American army had crossed the Delaware River. And the

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Speaker 2: enslaved individual tried to see him multiple times. He was

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Speaker 2: playing checkers at the time with another loyalist and later

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Speaker 2: played cards, and eventually, after being pestered multiple time times,

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Speaker 2: he sees the man and then takes the message which

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Speaker 2: says that the Americans are coming, and puts it in

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Speaker 2: his pocket.

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Speaker 1: And never reads it.

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Speaker 2: And the Americans indeed are coming that night, on Christmas night.

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Speaker 2: And it's mission impossible though, because John Glover and his

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Speaker 2: men have to somehow cross a river which is a

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Speaker 2: raging torrent. There's pieces of ice, there is a nor'easter

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Speaker 2: occurring where snow and sleet is pelting the men, and

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Speaker 2: only the most experienced mariners in the Continental Army can

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Speaker 2: do this task. They have to somehow transport over twenty

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Speaker 2: five hundred men across the river about twelve miles north

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Speaker 2: of Trenton, and they are you know, they have to

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Speaker 2: battle the different currents that are inside the river. If

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Speaker 2: they fail, there's literally a there's an eight foot waterfall

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Speaker 2: several hundred yards down the river that will capsize the

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Speaker 2: boats and drown. Many of the men will die of

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Speaker 2: hyperthermia if they're not successful. But they're able to somehow

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Speaker 2: with their skills and mariner skills which they developed in

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Speaker 2: the Grand Banks, which is off Nova Scotia, where they

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Speaker 2: were fishermen, which are the most treacherous waters in the world.

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Speaker 1: They're able to.

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Speaker 2: Bring the men and the army across against all odds.

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Speaker 2: For perspective, Washington had two other attacks that were trying

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Speaker 2: to cross the river. Two other forces that were trying

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Speaker 2: to cross the river. They failed because the water was

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Speaker 2: too treacherous. It was only through the skilled hands of

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Speaker 2: the marbleheaders that they were able to cross the river

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Speaker 2: the Delaware that night. And they're using a variety of craft.

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Speaker 2: There's a flat bottomed boats that there's also something called

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Speaker 2: a Durham boat. There's twenty five to forty of these

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Speaker 2: boats which deliver iron to a Durham the iron foundry

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Speaker 2: in near Durham, the Durham Iron Foundry, and these boats

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Speaker 2: are used to bring the men across in this raging snowstorm.

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Speaker 2: And I think what's so incredible is as the men

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Speaker 2: get off the boats, there's snow on the ground and

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Speaker 2: many of them don't have shoes. And there's many, many

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Speaker 2: accounts of how they literally leave a trail of blood

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Speaker 2: in their in the as they march in their wake,

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Speaker 2: because the men have no shoes. But you know, somehow

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Speaker 2: they have this alon in the spirit that is extraordinary.

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Speaker 2: One of the accounts in the Indispensables that chronicles the

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Speaker 2: Marbleheader story talks about how they had a cheerfulness despite

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Speaker 2: the fact that they were facing this weather that was

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Speaker 2: that was beating down on them. And as they probe forward,

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Speaker 2: they had to go through a ravine which was very slippery,

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Speaker 2: and many of the men were literally some of the

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Speaker 2: men were so exhausted that they almost fell asleep in

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Speaker 2: the snow. One man almost and that would have been

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Speaker 2: instant death. He would have died of hypothermia. And in

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Speaker 2: this march they move along and they meet a doctor

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Speaker 2: whose whose dog is barking on the near his house,

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Speaker 2: and they they approach him. Anybody that any anybody that

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Speaker 2: is approaches the army is literally apprehended because they could

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Speaker 2: they could give away the great secret of the revolutionary war,

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Speaker 2: that the Washington had landed his force and they were

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Speaker 2: moving towards Frent, and they bring this doctor forward, who

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Speaker 2: is a patriot, and he tells them that he will

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Speaker 2: very gladly come, and they moved down the road, and

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Speaker 2: they encounter a force under the command of by the

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Speaker 2: name of Wallace, who was authorized by Adam Steven to

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Speaker 2: make a revenge raid. And Washington is in a tower

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Speaker 2: of rage because you, he says to him, you, sir,

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Speaker 2: have destroyed my entire plan, and it destroyed the element

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Speaker 2: of surprise. And when in reality it's it's it's an

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Speaker 2: unintended consequence that may have occurred. The raid may have

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Speaker 2: alerted well Johann Rawl that the Americans had landed, but

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Speaker 2: it was a small force, and that this was indeed

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Speaker 2: the force that British intelligence had warned him of. And

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Speaker 2: he then went back to sleep. Johann Rahl went back

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Speaker 2: to sleep and put the mess and never read the

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Speaker 2: message that the Americans were coming. And the Marylanders, who

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Speaker 2: I chronicle Washington's mortals. There's a small force of Marylanders.

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Speaker 2: There's the the stalwart men that remained, including the Marblehead Mariners,

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Speaker 2: that march towards Trenton as daylight approaches, and John Glover

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Speaker 2: is marching on along the river road, that is the

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Speaker 2: road that corresponds with the Delaware River, and without orders,

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Speaker 2: he sees a bridge across the Acidpeake Creek and realizes

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Speaker 2: that this is an absolutely important target. He orders men

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Speaker 2: to seize the bridge and attack the Hessian guards there

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Speaker 2: and then move a number of cannon on the high

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Speaker 2: ground at the bridge. And it's here that Johann Ral

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Speaker 2: alerts his men the garrison Inn and Trenton is alarmed

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Speaker 2: and they attack Washington with a number of cannons, and

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Speaker 2: he has three regiments of it is disposable.

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Speaker 1: Two of those.

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Speaker 2: Regiments a desperate attack on Washington to somehow break the

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Speaker 2: grip of the American attack on Trenton, and it fails.

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Speaker 2: Johann Ral is mortally wounded. The Glover's force at Acid

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Speaker 2: p Creek basically seals one of the last escape routes

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Speaker 2: for Johann Rall's force at Trenton, and it becomes one

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Speaker 2: of the greatest American victories in history, one of the

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Speaker 2: great military victories in world history that will change the

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Speaker 2: entire course of the Revolutionary War, and it was part

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Speaker 2: of ten days of battles that would change the entire

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Speaker 2: Revolutionary War and world history.

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Speaker 1: I'm Patrick K. O'Donnell. Merry Christmas.

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Speaker 2: I'm hosting the Combat History of Christmas Today. It's our

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Speaker 2: annual tradition with Stephen K. Bannon, and what we like

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Speaker 2: to do is we go back in time and look

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Speaker 2: at the inflection points in history, which often revolve around Christmas.

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Speaker 2: But there are also stories about individuals and their agency

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Speaker 2: that change the course of events in one way or another.

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Speaker 2: And that is certainly the case with the next story

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Speaker 2: that I'm gonna tell, which is a Christmas story set

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Speaker 2: in World War Two. It's set in the mountains, the

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Speaker 2: Dolomite Mountains of northern Italy where a raging gorilla war

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Speaker 2: was taking place against the SS against the Germans. Situation

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Speaker 2: where small groups of OSS men otherwise the first Special Forces,

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Speaker 2: small groups of teams that were arming the resistance behind

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Speaker 2: the lines, would do some extraordinary things and are the

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Speaker 2: complete with the hallmarks of today's Special Operations Forces. And

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Speaker 2: that story begins and has some really key points at Christmas.

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Speaker 2: For me, it's a special story. It found me many

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Speaker 2: years ago, over fifteen years ago, where I was contemplating

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Speaker 2: going back overseas with embedding with another combat unit in Afghanistan.

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Speaker 1: And it was my.

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Speaker 2: Great friend whose nickname was the Brain, who was an

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Speaker 2: operations officer with the OSS that ran the Special ops

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00:28:56,360 --> 00:29:00,360
Speaker 2: missions deep into northern Italy. Said to me, Pat, don't go,

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Speaker 2: it's too dangerous. And I I said that okay. He's like,

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Speaker 2: I want you to tell the story. I want you

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Speaker 2: to tell Howard's story, Howard Chapel's story the Tacoma Mission.

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Speaker 2: So that that's great, But Howard never will never talk.

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Speaker 2: I spent years trying to get arguably one of the

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Speaker 2: greatest World War Two veterans I ever interviewed, to talk,

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00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:33,600
Speaker 2: and he would never talk. He would always I would

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Speaker 2: always call him up and he say, well, Pat, you

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00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:39,200
Speaker 2: know you need to come out here and and maybe

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Speaker 2: interview me. And it was always a throwaway line because

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Speaker 2: I did go out a couple of times and try

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Speaker 2: to interview him, and it never succeeded. But finally I

396
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:53,600
Speaker 2: got the brain to basically triangulate and pressure Howard to

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Speaker 2: letting me talk to him. And he said to me,

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Speaker 2: I landed in San Francisco and I called him up,

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Speaker 2: but I expected sort of the usual treatment and said,

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00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:07,400
Speaker 2: he said, Pat, meet me at the gas station at

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Speaker 2: Spyglass Road at Pismo.

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Speaker 1: Beach at noon tomorrow. And I was there.

403
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Speaker 2: I was there five, you know, ten minutes ahead of time,

404
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:18,880
Speaker 2: and I'll never forget. This big Lincoln kind of rolled

405
00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:21,760
Speaker 2: up and he had sunglasses on and he looks over

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Speaker 2: at me.

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Speaker 1: He goes follow me, and I went back to his house.

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Speaker 2: And Howard Chapel was six foot two, kind of built

409
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Speaker 2: like Schwarzenegger and still kind of had that frame and physique,

410
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Speaker 2: and he immediately tried to intimidate me, and I'll never forget.

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Speaker 2: I tried to bring him back in time and he

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Speaker 2: said to me, you know, Pat, he starts to open

413
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Speaker 2: up his mail with his fairburn Sykes fighting knife right

414
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Speaker 2: in front of me. It sort of timidate me. And

415
00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 2: then he started to like sharpen his fingernails. It's like,

416
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:06,560
Speaker 2: you know, you need to use the bathroom or anything.

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Speaker 2: I'm like, no, I'm fine, Howard. And then I said

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Speaker 2: to him, well, let's go back in time to when

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Speaker 2: you killed the.

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Speaker 1: German officer with your bare hands with a ski pole.

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Speaker 1: And that was like the opening that I needed.

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Speaker 2: And he went back in time and told me how

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Speaker 2: he killed. He was running for his life from what

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00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:32,640
Speaker 2: was known as an SS for stalmento behind the lines,

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Speaker 2: where his entire team was captured. Going back a little bit,

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Speaker 2: that team was set behind the lines, on Christmas Day

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Speaker 2: nineteen forty four, and they dropped at a place called Valmoral,

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Speaker 2: which is nestled in the Double Knight Mountains, on the

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Speaker 2: side of a mountain. The place is something you can

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Speaker 2: visit today. There's a grop up bar there on the

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Speaker 2: drop zone.

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Speaker 1: And I went.

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Speaker 2: Back, like I always do, to the places that I

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Speaker 2: write about, and I visited Vole Moral. I visited San Antonio,

435
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:11,240
Speaker 2: which is nearby, and I interviewed all of the old

436
00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:18,120
Speaker 2: partisans that were with the Tacoma team. And I'll never

437
00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:22,520
Speaker 2: forget my first One of the first and most important

438
00:32:22,520 --> 00:32:23,120
Speaker 2: people that I.

439
00:32:23,080 --> 00:32:26,080
Speaker 1: Interviewed was an old man who was a mayor of

440
00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:30,400
Speaker 1: a town. And I was there with.

441
00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:35,760
Speaker 2: One of the partisans relatives that had died in combat

442
00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:39,480
Speaker 2: on Chapel's team, and we went from house to house

443
00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 2: to interview the old Partisans. And this mayor, former mayor,

444
00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:46,520
Speaker 2: was sitting there watching TV and his door was kind

445
00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:49,760
Speaker 2: of open, and I knocked on the door and he

446
00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:51,920
Speaker 2: looked up at me and he said, what do you want?

447
00:32:52,960 --> 00:32:56,960
Speaker 1: And I said one thing. I said. I just said

448
00:32:57,200 --> 00:32:58,240
Speaker 1: Howard Chapel.

449
00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:02,400
Speaker 2: And this man's jaw literally dropped as I said that,

450
00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:06,800
Speaker 2: and he said to me Rambo, And that's what chapel.

451
00:33:08,080 --> 00:33:10,000
Speaker 1: That's how tough, that's how.

452
00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:14,440
Speaker 2: Much of a badass, and legitimately how our chapel was.

453
00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:17,120
Speaker 2: And I'll start to tell you that story of the

454
00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:20,960
Speaker 2: Brenner assignment. And these men drop in on Christmas Day

455
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:24,160
Speaker 2: and it's almost immediately hot.

456
00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:28,760
Speaker 1: The uh, the entire area is uh.

457
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:36,480
Speaker 2: There's a very active SS presence there that they hunt

458
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:40,120
Speaker 2: partisans and they and it's not a it's not a

459
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:41,400
Speaker 2: pleasant thing at all.

460
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:42,960
Speaker 1: If you're found to be.

461
00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:47,160
Speaker 2: Aiding the Americans or in a resistance group, you're hung

462
00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:50,840
Speaker 2: from a meat hook. And many of the squares of

463
00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:52,960
Speaker 2: the small towns in and around this area there were

464
00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 2: dozens of men that were hung from meat hooks for

465
00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 2: helping the Americans or just being part of the partisans group,

466
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:02,520
Speaker 2: or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

467
00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:06,520
Speaker 2: And that's how brutal and ruthless the SS were and

468
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:12,239
Speaker 2: this environment the Chapel had to operate in. His primary

469
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:17,680
Speaker 2: mission was to find another main character in my book,

470
00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:20,760
Speaker 2: a guy by the name of Stephen Hall, and Stephen

471
00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:26,000
Speaker 2: Hall in his story is epic and extraordinary. He dropped

472
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:29,799
Speaker 2: in August nineteen forty four and he would be part

473
00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:33,719
Speaker 2: of a single, one man mission to somehow destroy the

474
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:37,440
Speaker 2: sub passes that were part of the Brenner Pass. And

475
00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:42,000
Speaker 2: he wrote a letter to the OSS command months earlier

476
00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:47,080
Speaker 2: as he was going back to Gorvalis, Oregon on a

477
00:34:47,120 --> 00:34:49,520
Speaker 2: troop train. He was an engineer, combat engineer that knew

478
00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:54,080
Speaker 2: how to blow things up. But he's also an expert skier.

479
00:34:54,600 --> 00:34:57,759
Speaker 2: He was a mountaineer. He was a rich kid that

480
00:34:58,080 --> 00:35:01,959
Speaker 2: went to Harvard and yelt opped out of both and then.

481
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:03,400
Speaker 1: Sort of traveled the world.

482
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:08,000
Speaker 2: He went to Courtina, which is in the Dolomite Mounds,

483
00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:11,640
Speaker 2: a ski area, and he hiked and skied all the

484
00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:16,600
Speaker 2: mountains for six months. And he wrote in a letter

485
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:20,440
Speaker 2: in nineteen forty four to the OSAs if they dropped

486
00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:25,600
Speaker 2: the man with explosives and the proper equipment, he could

487
00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:29,520
Speaker 2: destroy the passes that led into the Brenner Pass. And

488
00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:32,160
Speaker 2: why is the Brenner Pass important? At this time it

489
00:35:32,200 --> 00:35:36,080
Speaker 2: was the lifeline or the artery where the German Army

490
00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:40,680
Speaker 2: was bringing their supplies and their men into northern Italy

491
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:42,840
Speaker 2: and Italy from Germany and Austria.

492
00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:44,359
Speaker 1: And it was.

493
00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:48,600
Speaker 2: Bombed relentlessly by the Allied Air Corps. But it was

494
00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:52,480
Speaker 2: so heavily fortified that the troop trains and everything else

495
00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:54,719
Speaker 2: were getting through. So they had to look at an

496
00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:58,719
Speaker 2: alternative means, a special operation to arm the resistance in

497
00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:03,240
Speaker 2: the area and then potentially take out the sub passes.

498
00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:07,879
Speaker 2: And this is Stephen Hall's mission, and he drops in

499
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:12,440
Speaker 2: with another team, initially a guy by the name of

500
00:36:12,560 --> 00:36:16,080
Speaker 2: Lloyd Smith, and I interviewed all of these men that

501
00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:20,320
Speaker 2: were alive, and Smith, nickname was Smitty, was an epic legendary.

502
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:22,719
Speaker 2: He was a rising star within the OSS at the

503
00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:26,319
Speaker 2: time because he had rescued a bunch of nurses that

504
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:28,800
Speaker 2: had crashed in a C forty seven behind the lines

505
00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:31,440
Speaker 2: in Albania. He went in with a three point fifty

506
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:35,640
Speaker 2: seven magnum alone and had to navigate all these partisan

507
00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:38,640
Speaker 2: groups at with a letter from President Roosevelt.

508
00:36:38,160 --> 00:36:39,120
Speaker 1: Saying that don't harm me.

509
00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:44,120
Speaker 2: He somehow gets out these men, along with Sterling Hayden,

510
00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:47,600
Speaker 2: who's a famous movie star later and then also Jack Taylor,

511
00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:50,440
Speaker 2: who was a main character in my book for Seals.

512
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:54,239
Speaker 2: But Smitty then has given the task of bringing in

513
00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:59,719
Speaker 2: Stephen Hall. And you know, I connected immediately with him

514
00:36:59,719 --> 00:37:02,759
Speaker 2: because I was a division ie wrestler in college and

515
00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:05,799
Speaker 2: so is he, and we had this immediate rapport and

516
00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:08,080
Speaker 2: I'll never forget. He pulled out the three fifty seven

517
00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:10,640
Speaker 2: magnum that he had behind the lines in Albania and

518
00:37:10,640 --> 00:37:13,239
Speaker 2: then also in northern Italy and showed it to me,

519
00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:17,800
Speaker 2: and he talked about how Hall was a unique character

520
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:20,680
Speaker 2: that in any ways was trying to find himself.

521
00:37:20,719 --> 00:37:22,680
Speaker 1: This is an incredible movie.

522
00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:26,840
Speaker 2: It's been optioned a few times, of him trying to

523
00:37:26,840 --> 00:37:31,840
Speaker 2: find himself but also to accomplish mission impossible. They jump

524
00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:36,440
Speaker 2: in to an area known as the Fraioli, which is

525
00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:40,479
Speaker 2: further away from the Dolomites, and he has he goes

526
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:43,680
Speaker 2: in with Smith and then he goes to Loane to

527
00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:47,279
Speaker 2: the Dolomites area where his mission will take place. And

528
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:54,360
Speaker 2: he has to march, climb and ski for days weeks

529
00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:58,320
Speaker 2: alone in the mountains in some of the most treacherous

530
00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:02,520
Speaker 2: train in the world world as he is being hunted

531
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:07,360
Speaker 2: by the SS and he's blowing up bridges. He's working

532
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:09,680
Speaker 2: with the resistance to some degree because but he's a

533
00:38:09,719 --> 00:38:13,400
Speaker 2: fish out of water, because he is a I mean,

534
00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:18,359
Speaker 2: he's kind of this white Anglo Saxon guy that went

535
00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:21,319
Speaker 2: to Harvard and Yale, and he's dealing with partisans in

536
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:22,959
Speaker 2: many cases who are communists.

537
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:25,160
Speaker 1: He has nothing in common with him, and.

538
00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:28,520
Speaker 2: He is he is able to thwart, you know, several

539
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:31,800
Speaker 2: attempts on his life. But he makes his way towards

540
00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:36,800
Speaker 2: the mission area and it's here, you know, like every

541
00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:41,400
Speaker 2: great story, this is I think, in my opinion, I've

542
00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:44,719
Speaker 2: interviewed thousands of World War Two veterans. I've written seven

543
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:46,880
Speaker 2: or eight books on World War Two. This is one

544
00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:49,560
Speaker 2: of the greatest World War Two stories of all time.

545
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:53,080
Speaker 2: It also has a love story with it. And it's

546
00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:57,120
Speaker 2: here that he's making his way towards Cortina that he

547
00:38:57,320 --> 00:39:02,200
Speaker 2: encounters a woman that will change his life, a countess

548
00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:06,520
Speaker 2: who is also a French agent, but he's also working

549
00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:08,719
Speaker 2: for the Germans, and she is a mayor of a

550
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:09,440
Speaker 2: small town.

551
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:13,080
Speaker 1: And there there his entree to this.

552
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:17,880
Speaker 2: Woman, the Countess Diablogado, and her her manch her small

553
00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:22,040
Speaker 2: home in a place called Marson still exists. All of

554
00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:25,400
Speaker 2: these places still exist. And oh, by the way, the

555
00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:29,240
Speaker 2: World War Two Museum is planning on doing a epic

556
00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:34,120
Speaker 2: tour of the Brenner assignment in this mission and it's

557
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:38,160
Speaker 2: one for it's such a special place. It's a it's

558
00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:41,000
Speaker 2: a it's a story that is not known in World

559
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:43,879
Speaker 2: War two. And it's also, as I mentioned, a love story.

560
00:39:43,880 --> 00:39:48,359
Speaker 2: And it's here that he encounters her in a strange way.

561
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:49,879
Speaker 1: He receives a.

562
00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:53,600
Speaker 2: Book, the Scarlet Pimpernel, which is a sort of her

563
00:39:53,640 --> 00:39:58,640
Speaker 2: call sign for him to meet her, and she has

564
00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:03,600
Speaker 2: a specific code. She leaves a pine branch at the

565
00:40:03,640 --> 00:40:08,080
Speaker 2: window sill of her home out if the Germans are

566
00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:12,920
Speaker 2: not in the house. And as it's a wintery night

567
00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:18,080
Speaker 2: in November nineteen forty four, and he along with a

568
00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:21,879
Speaker 2: partisan leader is making their way to Marzon and they

569
00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:26,480
Speaker 2: see the pine branch near the window, and he goes

570
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:31,320
Speaker 2: into the Countess's house and encounters.

571
00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:33,280
Speaker 1: A woman which will change his life.

572
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:39,680
Speaker 2: And she's sort of seated on a sofa rather seductively

573
00:40:40,520 --> 00:40:45,959
Speaker 2: and it's there that life will change for Stephen home.

574
00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:10,480
Speaker 2: I'm Patrick K o'donald and I'm hosting the Common History

575
00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:13,960
Speaker 2: of Christmas for the War Room, our annual tradition. I'm

576
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:17,800
Speaker 2: taking you back behind the lines in the Brenner Assignment.

577
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:23,640
Speaker 2: It's Christmas Day, nineteen forty four and Stephen k. Hall

578
00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:27,640
Speaker 2: is in the House of the Countess who's a double agent.

579
00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:32,040
Speaker 2: She works for France but also Germany, but she's also

580
00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:35,560
Speaker 2: a sympathizer with resistance and a resistance leader in her

581
00:41:35,600 --> 00:41:36,239
Speaker 2: of herself.

582
00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:38,239
Speaker 1: It's here that Stephen K.

583
00:41:38,440 --> 00:41:43,240
Speaker 2: Hall is given sort of the mission impossible to destroy

584
00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:47,720
Speaker 2: a small light railroad and a transformer that is about

585
00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:52,480
Speaker 2: ten miles away. Hall spends the night Christmas Eve with

586
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:58,279
Speaker 2: the Countess. And what's extraordinary is he records his story

587
00:41:58,960 --> 00:42:03,600
Speaker 2: on cigarette paper and buries his diary and wine bottles

588
00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:11,040
Speaker 2: in and around various homes. This book that I'm talking about,

589
00:42:11,440 --> 00:42:13,840
Speaker 2: this story is in a book called The Brenner Assignments,

590
00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:18,120
Speaker 2: best selling book. It's made up of over thousands, tens

591
00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:24,440
Speaker 2: of thousands of documents, including Stephen K. Hall's diary that

592
00:42:24,480 --> 00:42:29,319
Speaker 2: was on cigarette paper, but also the mission reports from

593
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:32,719
Speaker 2: Howard Chapel and the Tacoma team, and Hall's mission reports.

594
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:35,160
Speaker 1: There's a radio messages.

595
00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:40,560
Speaker 2: It's thousands of documents, tens of thousands of documents to

596
00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:44,600
Speaker 2: symbol a narrative which is extraordinary. It's here he's given

597
00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:49,040
Speaker 2: this impossible mission on Christmas Day and he sets out

598
00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:52,440
Speaker 2: on skis in the middle of a snowstorm to blow

599
00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:56,640
Speaker 2: up the rail station and the transformer because it's a

600
00:42:56,719 --> 00:42:59,960
Speaker 2: mercury condenser, it's something that has to come from German.

601
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:02,960
Speaker 2: He would it would disable the line for months or

602
00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:07,520
Speaker 2: weeks and sets off in the middle of this raging snowstorm,

603
00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:12,799
Speaker 2: trying to destroy this this rail light rail station which

604
00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:16,880
Speaker 2: is an artery towards the Brenner Pass and moving troops

605
00:43:16,880 --> 00:43:22,400
Speaker 2: and supplies, and he's disoriented after several hours of skiing

606
00:43:23,280 --> 00:43:28,320
Speaker 2: and he basically collapses not far from this rail station,

607
00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:32,719
Speaker 2: which is his mission, and he's he's captured by a

608
00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:37,200
Speaker 2: forest forester who's who's sympathetic to Germany, and he's brought

609
00:43:37,200 --> 00:43:40,960
Speaker 2: to a priest and it's it's here that he is

610
00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:48,160
Speaker 2: he's arrested, and he's very tragically tortured, tortured to death

611
00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:53,719
Speaker 2: by the SS. And what this book is about is

612
00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:59,520
Speaker 2: a an epic story of the s S against Howard

613
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:02,640
Speaker 2: Chapel in the Partisans and resistance behind the lines. This

614
00:44:02,719 --> 00:44:05,680
Speaker 2: is the first special operations team. These were known as

615
00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:09,480
Speaker 2: operational groups, and he had the German Operational Group. If

616
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:12,240
Speaker 2: you've ever seen the movie in Glorious Bastards at the beginning,

617
00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:17,800
Speaker 2: this is his group. It's he was a German speaking

618
00:44:18,880 --> 00:44:22,760
Speaker 2: guy that was built like Arno Schwarzenegger, that went behind

619
00:44:22,760 --> 00:44:27,480
Speaker 2: the lines and then accomplishes Stephen Hall's mission and.

620
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:32,280
Speaker 1: It's amazing. Halls is captured.

621
00:44:32,120 --> 00:44:36,200
Speaker 2: And he's killed by the SS, and then Chapel has

622
00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:38,920
Speaker 2: to somehow get towards Hall. He doesn't know he's killed,

623
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:46,359
Speaker 2: and he reforms Stephen Hall's Partisans and they set up

624
00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:52,719
Speaker 2: what is really one of the great ambushes of the war.

625
00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:56,239
Speaker 2: They seal a portion of the Brenner Pass as the

626
00:44:56,400 --> 00:45:00,000
Speaker 2: SS are escaping, including the five or four heavy time

627
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:04,040
Speaker 2: tank Battalion which has one operational Tiger tank. As they're

628
00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:07,680
Speaker 2: making their way to the Brinner Pashy, they blow up

629
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:10,960
Speaker 2: a bridge before the pass, and then they capture the

630
00:45:11,040 --> 00:45:14,440
Speaker 2: high ground above it and they fire upon the SS,

631
00:45:15,040 --> 00:45:16,800
Speaker 2: and the SS thinks that they have.

632
00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:19,000
Speaker 1: Chapel in checkmate.

633
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:22,160
Speaker 2: They tell him under a white flag that they will

634
00:45:22,160 --> 00:45:26,560
Speaker 2: blow up the church which contains all the civilians in

635
00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:33,280
Speaker 2: the small town of Capriley, and Chapel takes the basically

636
00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:38,840
Speaker 2: calls their bluff, goes down to the area of Kaprilei

637
00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:42,960
Speaker 2: on a motorcycle with one of his men. He's only

638
00:45:43,080 --> 00:45:46,240
Speaker 2: armed with a forty five and he confronts the SS

639
00:45:46,680 --> 00:45:47,640
Speaker 2: and says, it is.

640
00:45:47,600 --> 00:45:48,719
Speaker 1: You that are surrounded.

641
00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:52,960
Speaker 2: You are cut off, and there's a parachute battalion that

642
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:57,560
Speaker 2: has landed nearby, and you must surrender. And he does,

643
00:45:58,480 --> 00:46:01,960
Speaker 2: He provides, he does the empire possible. The SS surrenders

644
00:46:02,719 --> 00:46:06,080
Speaker 2: thirty five hundred men, including the payroll for the German Army.

645
00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:09,400
Speaker 2: To Howard Chapel, a single man, how a single person

646
00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:13,840
Speaker 2: with agency changes the course of an entire campaign in

647
00:46:13,880 --> 00:46:19,120
Speaker 2: northern Italy. And you know Stephen kay Bannon, who's my

648
00:46:19,320 --> 00:46:23,520
Speaker 2: favorite host of this show, always ask me where do

649
00:46:23,600 --> 00:46:25,800
Speaker 2: you find Where do you get these books?

650
00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:26,520
Speaker 1: Pat?

651
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:29,200
Speaker 2: Or where do you where? Where can the audience find them?

652
00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:32,480
Speaker 2: You can go to my website, Patrick K. O'donald dot com.

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00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:36,520
Speaker 2: You can go to at Combat Historian which is a getitor,

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00:46:36,719 --> 00:46:41,360
Speaker 2: or Twitter, and the book The Unvanquished is at the

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00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:45,120
Speaker 2: front of the store at Barnes and Noble nationwide. But

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Speaker 2: what is it about. It's about agency. It's about you

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00:46:50,719 --> 00:46:55,080
Speaker 2: are responsible. You the individual can change the course of history.

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Speaker 2: Merry Christmas, something.

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Speaker 3: And so I something something that speaks