The Last Charge of the Calcutta Light Horse - how middle-aged amateurs defeated the German navy

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An extraordinary tale of improvised warfare in World War Two, of pluck against the odds, and how the old-boy network could get things done.
The Calcutta Light Horse was disbanded in 1947 with Indian independence, and so never saw action again, hence the title. I didn't know as I recorded what the title would be.
Thanks to Karan Singh Kamboj for suggesting the topic.
Kingston valve image by By David Monniaux - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
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Lindybeige: a channel of archaeology, ancient and medieval warfare, rants, swing dance, travelogues, evolution, and whatever else occurs to me to make.
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[@caleb1031]

Imagine working at a brothel, and your boss is like: "yea next week is free for all sailors" _Shudders_

[@masterdimsen]

I bet those girls were cumpensated

[@Strawberry92fs]

@@masterdimsen free for sailors sounds an awful lot like they can't turn away customers. The right to choose your customers is of vital importance to the health and safety of sex workers. And considering that in the modern day many sex workers are NOT financially compensated in any way for their services (Their pimps provide room and board and cothing) it seems unreasonable to assume based on nothing that the sex workers in this story were fairly compensated.

[@juanpgomez1299]

@@masterdimsen I see what you did there

[@grizzlygrizzle]

Maybe they would tip better.

[@ezekielbrockmann114]

@@grizzlygrizzle I'm sure they got far more than just the tip!

[@lhaviland8602]

Lindy: Doesn't like the feature film about this event. Lindy: Makes his own.

[@kmc7355]

He also made a better explanation of the 4 people squabbling in a shed movie

[@LilNewo]

He does a great white headhunter yarn too.

[@mrtulipeater]

Brought to you by TheGreatCoursesPlus!!

[@davidw.2791]

@@kmc7355 What movie is that?

[@johngingerich7327]

Incoding the anigma?

[@griff5713]

Hiring a brothel for a week free for sailors, if that didnt get a big round of applause certainly a clap.

[@siypic]

More likely "the clap"......

[@mikemines2931]

Rather rash I thought.

[@tedwarden1608]

@@siypicSurely That Depends:)

[@ezekielbrockmann114]

That joke stings like fire from the tip of the muzzle of the good gunnery's cannon.

[@77thTrombone]

You’ve been awarded the KZbin Pun-of-the-Day award! 🏅 Very funny!

[@yuslaven89]

Can you imagine how good a storyteller this man is, when in this age of short attention span, he mustered a million subscribers on an hour plus long videos. Homer of our age.

[@solidtank7957]

This is what youtube can be in the best case.

[@yuslaven89]

@Velsen Fest Well, he's a Brit. Nobody is perfect. But great storyteller none the less.

[@CurmudgeonExtraordinaire]

@Charles Yuditsky -- He does seem to ramble a bit...

[@joaoie]

His attention span is as short as the audience's. Him changing topics slightly every 5 minutes is the key!

[@rjones83061]

@Charles Yuditsky ROFLMAO

[@lindybeige]

Oh my word! I have just noticed that I left out the word 'India' in the opening introduction! Sorry for confusing everyone! Still, I dare say that you twig that I'm talking about India after a while.

[@paradox7358]

The map is a massive give away.

[@bl4cksp1d3r]

I've checked the map. Yeah, it looks like India, it even says so, in big black letters. I am still not sure though

[@vedranb87]

The very first words are "Pay attention". I know it's a global economic crisis at the moment due to force majeure but if attention is out of the scope of things we can afford then the problem is much larger than I thought...

[@iododendron3416]

For a second I thought there was a movement for England to be independet from the UK. But just for a second :).

[@JohnP538]

The Calcutta Light Horse at Goa, one of my favorite operations of WWII.

[@paradox7358]

When you think you have a pretty good grasp of WW2 history, then Lindy goes and throws another gem at you! The war was FAR more complex than you realised.

[@Aotearas]

You do know there's a channel with a week-by-week account of WW2 (from the same guys who made the week-by-week recount of WW1)? If not, might want to check it out.

[@paradox7358]

@@Aotearas cheers, I'll check it out.

[@valentia68]

Paradox GM b

[@mr.pavone9719]

I always get bored with the war nerds who only want to talk about tanks and guns and other mechanical nonsense. It's people who fight wars, not machines, and the people are always more interesting.

[@pantherfelis6506]

@Anirban Chakrabarti INA: you mean the pack of traitors??

[@KeignarGaming]

As a portuguese person, hearing Lindy say "Senhor" is... an experience that's both unexpected and hard to describe.

[@davidfossard5689]

Also ''fiesta'' instead of ''festa'' is pretty good

[@myparceltape1169]

Remember that he has spent time in Greece and must have been curious about the other countries around the Mediterranean Sea, after all, it was sometimes called Mare Nostrum.

[@MartinhoRamos1990]

Timestamp, por favor?

[@tediprifti4348]

@@MartinhoRamos1990 1:02:30

[@jackparry6983]

It's like when your family dies in a car crash I'd imagine

[@josmo1363]

Door: *HIGH VOLTAGE DANGER OF DEATH* "Let's have a look in this one" well obviously

[@1crazypj]

In the 1950's, Royal Enfield designed and built a new motorcycle, the 'Crusader' Under the right engine cover was a brass plate held on by 4 screws and stamped 'DO NOT REMOVE' Designer did it deliberately as he knew it would be taken off, rummaged around in the 'hole' and therefore clean the sludge trap that would otherwise be ignored. It was common knowledge back then that you could tell average British person to do something and be ignored but tell them NOT to do it and , like a 4 yr old, they will do it (not sure a whole lot has changed?)

[@joedewitt3340]

I really respect this ability to speak for so long without edits on a topic, I can barely manage five minutes.

[@blakexu4943]

Perhaps he should dedicate a hour long video on public speaking & give some insight into his narrating witchcraft.

[@johnhio1843]

5 minutes ain't bad. You see even professional youtubers who can barely make it though a single sentence without jumpcuts. Lindy is a monster tho, doesn't look like he even have a script.

[@nicholasarcarese1908]

The man should be a professor. We all know he has quite the scholar’s cradle

[@-1subswithoutuploadingavid621]

@@nicholasarcarese1908 He was a professor of Archaeology I'm fairly sure

[@workingpeon9316]

He is Lindybeige you know, the god of rambling about things while getting side tracked by semi related topics while also adding conjectures along the way. Good stuff.

[@freakysteve140281]

I can only imagine the wives of the men when the story finally came out. Hear about all the heroism and all the cloak and dagger to pull off the mission... “so you lot got drunk and booked out an entire streets worth of brothels for a week then!?”

[@isaweesaw]

Sounds about right XD

[@christopherconard2831]

Or some bookkeeper back in London being handed the bill for reimbursement.

[@richardm3023]

"It was for the war effort dearest!"

[@johndillermand4053]

LOL

[@LtGenAile]

I'd imagine that there were cries of "YOU SILLY BUGGER!" and much brandishing of rolling pins and frying pans.

[@semibreve]

Those 18 men, if the mission had gone any other way, would have been regarded as fools and madmen. But no. Absolute legends, each and every one of them. I also love to think how excited these middle-aged, upper-class gentleman were to be playing special operative.

[@olivercromwell3575]

My dad was a psychiatric nurse. The charge nurse on the first ward he worked on used to be an ex cavalry trooper in India. He was a nice bloke- had a family and three children who he loved. Yet the prominent photo in his office was of his horse back in India. My dad got to know him quite well and they became friends. He told my dad that the only time he ever cried was when they took his horse away and gave him an armoured car.

[@CanuckWolfman]

"We have something urgent to tell you!" "Mein Gott! Quick, come in! What is it?" >Draws a pistol< "You're about to be kidnapped by British agents."

[@ShadowDragon8685]

It's not lying; it is an urgent matter that the recipient needs to understand very quickly!

[@davesy6969]

You mean "you are about to be kidnapped by agents that are definitely not British!"

[@Gentleman...Driver]

@@davesy6969 That are British, but dont are in the military, and do this on their own mind... because... reasons.

[@bryanthardin8481]

Scheiß

[@johnladuke6475]

"Mein frau will never believe this, she'll think I've slipped out with the secretary. You must explain."

[@mr.pavone9719]

Lindy: 19:00 "People like it when my videos are long, and I think this one is going to be quite long..." Me: checks length of video Also Me: "Oh my God..."

[@joncripps]

and immediately after saying this he goes on to talk about how the British painted a car Beige. Gotta love Lindy haha

[@roguegen5536]

Yeah I almost made a similar comment to this lol

[@ljlk8583]

gladiator video: HA pathetic

[@SerLaama]

You're misusing the already overused meme.

[@SgtKOnyx]

As an EFAP veteran this is nothing lol

[@zachary4670]

I appreciate all the “translations” for Americans, because as an American... I honestly needed most of them. BOO-EY.

[@nemo-zl1vm]

Yes, I had a wild few seconds where I was imagining a "navigation boy" who hung out on the shore that you had to pull your ship up next to, drive-thru style, to ask which way to go to conduct your secret raid.

[@garygalt4146]

@@nemo-zl1vm navigation bout. Oh when will you yanks learn English. Stop watching American tv and start watching English tv. I say English because if you try Scot you won’t understand there accent Welsh is well Welsh and Irish the make up letters throw them to confuse you. But watch you may learn how to speak and gain knowledge. And I promise you will be better entertained

[@jeffersonwright9275]

@@garygalt4146 ... it’s their, not there ... just saying ...

[@1crazypj]

@@garygalt4146 America has to thank Benjamin Franklin and George Washington things are not MUCH worse as (I think?) 'Webster' (the dictionary guy) invented a totally new language nothing like 'English' but was prevented from making it official American language (I used to research all sorts of obscure stuff 20+ years ago, not your average motorcycle mechanic) He was however allowed to screw up spelling and make several things ludicrously difficult to understand by anyone (including Americans) What's the difference between a check and a check? 'British spelling of Check and Cheque makes it very obvious without having to figure out context I pick on that particularly as an assistant bank manager once cashed a dodgy check my stepdaughter received without checking account check was drawn on to see if funds were available (which was against bank policy.) At minimum there should have bee a 3 day wait Using check and cheque makes it much easier to read and eventually the claim for $4,000 plus interest was dropped. Oh, about 80% of all TV shows come from USA (2014 statistics, I didn't bother to check 'today's')

[@QualityPen]

@@1crazypj Check is a verb. Cheque is a noun. They aren’t used the same way. The context is pretty obvious. Frankly, I don’t know how those could possibly confuse anybody. On the other hand, two ways of spelling something which is pronounced in exactly the same way….. Would you like to file a petition to differentiate the spelling for well (good) and well (water source in the ground)? I was thinking “wel” and “wehlle.” The h and second e are silent. There- now we can avoid contextual ambiguity. But really mate, if you’re going to get pedantic about such things in the English language (American or British) you might as well toss the entire thing out. Because, as someone who also knows Spanish and Russian, let me tell you that English is one convoluted and irrational mess of a language compared to most others.

[@burningb2439]

Great thing about Lindy is when he starts telling a story with passion and wit , you start seeing the whole thing ..He's brilliant.

[@LuxisAlukard]

I think this video exist only to point out that someone, somewhere at that time - used beige paint for cars

[@theblancmange1265]

And that people who paint their cars beige do really awsome stuff.

[@09jt1]

😁

[@antthegord9411]

would not be a huge surprise. the man loves beige, what can he say

[@mericaman6388]

I fart in your general direction

[@tiggytheimpaler5483]

Makes sense

[@templarknight5557]

If I had my way, Lindybeige would be the Minister of English education setting standards and criteria for our children to be taught in schools. Why on earth no tv channel has not snapped him up is beyond me, he is marvelous ,witty and so informative.

[@nolansgroove1359]

It's because he has standards

[@templarknight5557]

@@nolansgroove1359 True. They would corrupt and politically correct everything he says. Your right ! best he stays here...lol

[@Ranger_Kevin]

Probably because the "Infotainment" format of many TV programs nowadays probably would not fit with his presentation style and most TV audiences have way to short of an attention span to enjoy his lectures.

[@billpalmer2381]

@@nolansgroove1359 absfkinltiy

[@suburbanbanshee]

Lindybeige gets more traffic on his videos than a lot of cable channels get for all their programs. MSNBC, for example. Or today's ESPN.

[@ajvanmarle]

Absolutely love this story. It's so uniquely British. Both in how amateurish and improvised it all was and in the fact that they actually made it work.

[@tayetrotman]

Yeah, it’s shocking how many British wartime plans were horribly put together but somehow worked.

[@meyr1992]

@@tayetrotman but some of them were a bridge too far…

[@tayetrotman]

@@meyr1992 Nonsense! Absolute nonsense! That one would have worked if the silly Americans had done their job 😌

[@meyr1992]

@@tayetrotman i hope you are joking because the americans did an amazing job despite the mess the brits made

[@jamesn0va]

@@meyr1992 if you watch lindys video about the battle of the atlantic you may revaluate that idea

[@Squiddy00]

"So it was win-win all round, really." Well except for those germans that got shot.

[@Trek001]

It was an accident - they died of lead poisoning

[@CalculusDaddy]

To be fair, they were Nazis.

[@filianablanxart8305]

To be fair there was variation between enthusiasm for Nazism per se and simply doing their duty for their Country . But in any case , they were enemy combatants , and War happens .

[@QualityPen]

@@filianablanxart8305 When your country is invading most of Europe and exterminating millions of people, I think it’s fair to say duty to one’s country should take a back seat to doing what’s right. I don’t think it made a difference to someone whose son was shot or daughter raped whether the perpetrator was a true Nazi or just “doing his patriotic duty.”

[@Salesman40mm]

@@QualityPen I highly doubt that German sailors in Portuguese India knew about the death camps. Not many Germans knew about how bad that the camps were, they knew they existed, but they thought that they were just labor camps.

[@snehallit]

Thank you Lloyd . The Indian side of things isn't really talked about much when it comes to world war two .

[@antthegord9411]

@chris younts right?

[@Turiargov]

Are you related to Ram Das?

[@snehallit]

@@Turiargov um no , that's DasGupta , that's a different surname entirely . Sorry I'm so late to tell you this lol .

[@Turiargov]

@@snehallit No problem, thanks for enlightening me. :)

[@jcyberghost007]

There is no Indian side to this.... It's completely a british standpoint

[@Quasihamster]

This story reminds me of an alleged Confucius quote: If you think you're too small to make a difference, you never tried to fall asleep while a midge is buzzing around your head.

[@JPASSY]

Very well told 👍 Bill Grice was my grandfather 😏Thank you very much for telling such a great story about incredibly brave men. I feel however that I need to correct you on a couple of points: My grandfather ( Bill Grice)actually did fight in the 1st World War as a naval officer and was mentioned in the dispatches he was only 18. And they weren’t “0ld Codgers” my grandfather was the oldest at 45 at the time all the others were under 40 and very fit, all in reserved occupations and couldn’t go to war. This is information I received from my mother Doris Jane Grice (Bill Grice’s daughter) who is still alive and fit (87yo) But nice to see that this story is still being told about a very brave and selfless mission “reasonably” accurately after all these years 😉

[@UrbanTomfoolery]

I couldn’t imagine how great this would be as a film adaptation

[@tayetrotman]

It’d make a great comedy

[@tomsaunders9944]

Couldn't agree more.

[@sameerthakur720]

It was an actual movie starting Gregory Peck Roger Moore and David Niven, called The Sea Wolves. An adaptation of the novel, "Boarding Party" by James Leasor.

[@hendrikvanleeuwen9110]

You know you are British when you have to catch the train to your secret raid.

[@Milamberinx]

Yes, we did invent the locomotive.

[@phinhager6509]

@@Milamberinx you may have invented it, but we Americans made it useful

[@Milamberinx]

@@phinhager6509 no, it was pretty much immediately useful. Perhaps you're thinking of something else.

[@Fetherko]

Such a part of your culture!

[@SuperMYSHKIN]

@@phinhager6509 Amtrak is a disgrace.

[@dontcheckmychanel]

I'm really glad you missed your calling as a history teacher. A single video lecture of yours reaches more people than your whole career combined would.

[@robertcapostagno2082]

He's taught me a lot, by golly.

[@thekodanator]

I've been on a bit of a Lindybinge lately, and I must say: I appreciate every time you pause to think. It puts in to perspective how much of this knowledge you actually contain, and how much effort you put in to maintaining the proper story. Thank you Lindybeige!

[@Durmomo0]

"not just to improve it in general" you got me with this one. What a great story.

[@RimmyDownunder]

I was meant to be up early to sink warships with Digby tomorrow. I'll likely be sleeping in now. Sorry Digby, military bed time stories are too interesting.

[@falconajc4113]

Did not expect to see you here.

[@The_Missingnumber]

Now matter how much sense it makes to see you enjoy Lindybeige content, it still feels like an odd sight : D edit: I can't spell anything

[@meeshermans297]

Not to worry, you'll be in the navy, commisar Digby has no power there.

[@MagicalGeekMV]

*Chuckle*

[@usainvanrudisha1649]

Yeah it’s now 1:43am and I want to sleep but I can’t stop watching...

[@sevenproxies4255]

How could a beige car be nondescript? Whenever you see a beige car, you know that there's Britishness afoot.

[@akashahuja2346]

Black? Too somber, white? Good God man! Far to flashy! Beige? Ah! Now your Britishing!

[@ralphkrattli6607]

Beige car would be like hiding in plain sight.... Helas the car in the movie clip is white

[@SierraNovemberKilo]

After passing my driving test my father went searching for a car for me and took me to a dealer and showed me a beige thingie...I think I actually stamped my foot and turned my back on it. The dealer, desperate for a sale promptly tried to sell us some other stuff. Didn't work & I ended up getting a rather mind-of-its-own thing cast off by a neighbour. Not sure now whether the beige thing would have been better. 18 yr old fuddy duddy... couldn't see it then, can now. LOL.

[@abraxaseyes87]

@@SierraNovemberKilo ? Need more details. Whats your gender? What year/ company?

[@davidelliott5843]

@@SierraNovemberKilo my first car was a MG Midget with 1275 A Series engine and twin SU carbs. It was of course an orange/beige as they all were in the 1970s. And well rusty of course.

[@andrewcomerford9411]

"It's rather difficult to look innocent in that situation," Priceless !

[@nigelfanai5419]

The story itself, the various asides and inflections of tone. You sir, are one of the finest modern day raconteurs. Am glad I'm alive at the same time you are.

[@75RWM]

"... No, perhaps I shouldn't say." Somebody send Lindy a beige seahorse broach.

[@KirillTheBeast]

The fact that the german agent's code name was "trompeta" and his wife was called Gretta might be a fairly obscure joke almost nobody noticed. You see, in Spain there used to be a somewhat infamous tradition in the southern folklore that involved bachelors skulking out of the village at night, chopping down a small tree, carrying it back to the village and then propping it up against the wall or a balcony of their love interest's home. Said bachelor and bunch of his pals would then proceed to sing a song for/about the poor girl in question that would inevitably wake up everyone within hearing distance including the girl herself and most importantly her parents. These "songs" would invariably be of very poor taste, with rather lewd passages often accusing the girl of being promiscuous, indecent, etc. The whole point of the lyrics was to have the girl come out of her house just to make them stop singing such things within earshot of her parents. Now, all these songs revolved around rhyming the girl's name (not difficult, since back then a lot of people had a "non christian" name plus three more "canonical" names chosen by the priest upon baptising them). Guess what did people rhyme with "Gretta"? The answer is "me toca la trompeta", which roughly translates to "plays with my trumpet/plays the trumpet for me" (lots of double entendres there; spaniards get more "tongue-in-cheek" the more you try to repress them). There you go. Either just a meaningless coincidence or a raunchy joke slipping under everyone's radar. Edit: Shizzle! I misremembered that one! That tradition is actually not from the South but from the region around a province called Huesca, in Aragón! I mixed that one with the equivalent they have in the southern provinces involving zero singing, a lot of booze and a man-powered trampoline using a big blanket. XD My bad, guys.

[@culshie]

I love this story and I thought I knew every questionable story or piece of folklore, kudos Khelthrai.

[@nomdeplume798]

Well done that man. Just the sort of answer we need in a Lindybeige video. Completely obscure and very difficult to confirm or deny.

[@stephenle-surf9893]

And I thought we scouser boys were the only ones guilty of this behaviour!😁😁😁😁😁😁

[@fionafiona1146]

In Germany there is a dedicated day for that before the coming of age rituals around harvest festivals (at least in some palatinate villages)... The songs have been tempered but occasionally shine trough, trees shrunk considerably (health, safety and budget agreeing).

[@lordchickenhawk]

If we Aussies could just get the singing part of that joke sorted we'd have this whole "culture" thing licked... just give us a few centuries, I'm sure we can get there!

[@Rehteal]

This absolutely feels like a movie starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. They're the right age for it by now too. It's like the perfect blend of action and comedy.

[@michaelmontana251]

The Sea Wolves - 1980

[@Rehteal]

@@michaelmontana251 Except if you note what Lindy said about it *in this very video,* that movie sucked and was more about putting big name actors together rather than try to pay respect to the source material.

[@mhale1982]

I love your ability to study that book and other sources, and then tell an hour and a half story based on it. You'd make a great Professor.

[@mhale1982]

Actually, wait a second. Why haven't they asked you to make a course for TGCP?

[@randycampbell6307]

Can we do a crowd-funding for a remake of "The Sea Wolves" with Lindybeige writing the script? I REALLY want to see this on the big screen :)

[@indieWellie]

with how long he's taken to write that graphic novel (still not finished three years late), probably not.

[@nilsmanuelgut131]

@@indieWellie how about a commented version of the movie, though? 10h should do the trick.

[@1crazypj]

I think it would make a fantastic action comedy, you couldn't write as well as what actually happened. There are also plenty of aging Hollywood starswho could play various parts (maybe it was part of the inspiration for the Stallone movies I forget the name of? Indestructables or something?)

[@Ammo08]

@@1crazypj Rowan Atkinson and George Clooney come to mind...

[@1crazypj]

@@Ammo08 LOL, Not too sure about Clooney, can he do a British accent? I guess the one Americans use when pretending to be British would work for something set in 1940's/ (very 'home counties' tootle hoo old chap)

[@mishmashmedley]

The Great Courses Plus Presents: A Feature-Length LindyBeige Production!

[@gahane]

They certainly got their moneys worth with this one.

[@huwtindall7096]

This is possibly the most British military story of all time. Outstanding! Lindybeige is a true modern day story teller and entertainer.

[@davidlium9338]

Can I only give one thumbs up? The Calcutta Light Horse deserves a VC!!! If given for a unit.

[@JagerLange]

So, after nearly being killed twice on the raid by his own side, Breen then had to do all the Germans' paperwork? Poor bugger.

[@VosperCDN]

Perhaps best summed up by "No good deed goes unpunished" ?

[@yoursexualizedgrandparents6929]

"An awful lot of shipping was going on" Oh God, the internet has ruined history too.

[@logitimate]

That's an odd way of spelling "improved."

[@siyacer]

Gross

[@neilgriffiths6427]

Terrible that a story virtually no-one has ever heard has been told to half a million people, eh? Sour Grapes.

[@oddsteinardybvad-raneng]

Brilliant!! Being an 'old codger' myself I could listen to him for hours and hours and hours. A VERY big 'thank you'. One of, if not the best, storytellers I have watched and listened to, ever!

[@salonez91]

Your specific details are actually making your channel so special, as today youtubers just make small videos on point. Witch is getting really boring and feels empty. Great ability of story telling as well. Good job !

[@57575756]

I think Lindybeige has 2 methods to make video's What's Lindybeige doing today, like Lindybeige in a old beige city or Lindybeige get's kicked by a horse. Lindybeige goes to bed with no plan's for tomorrow, he wakes up the next morning, turns on the camera and does an unbroken hour and forty minute stream of knowledge on a historical topic. Brilliant!!!

[@theblancmange1265]

@chris younts Watch his old videos. Most were terribly short compared to this, but just as beige.

[@sukalanger]

He has the interests of a 13 year old boy before he discovers girls

[@sukalanger]

@chris younts Only kidding love his stuff

[@123fishpond]

Carefull with your apostrophise,

[@grego15]

My grandfather was one of those who was too young for WWI and too old for WWII(b. 1901). He was one of those rare 1 in a million types. When he died, at age 94, it was discovered that he had saved up $1M after working 50 years in the same US Post office by saving every penny he could. He had put 2 kids through college, my dad and uncle. No one had any clue except his wife. My grandma said living through the great depression had a huge effect on his character and he could never forget... Personally, this video was the first time I've heard reference to this generation of men, even though they must not have been that rare.

[@johnburnett5377]

My grandfather was also born in 1901. Talk about winning the lottery.

[@wyvernquill2796]

My GP was born in 1900 and was just to young for WW1 and by the time he was 18 he broke his leg and it never healed right. He did not get to save with 7 kids on a farm and side work as a carpenter In WW2 he and his two oldest sons worked in a shipyard doing the wood work inside liberty ships.

[@grego15]

@@wyvernquill2796 Hard work was never in short supply with that generation. We don't work as hard or as much as the generations past. However, we do carry the burden of consistent stress brought on by the constant supply and demand of information and communication.

[@johnburnett5377]

@Ahri Ayumei ?

[@maddyg3208]

My grandfather was an enthusiastic 1914 digger and went to Gallipoli and England. But his little brother, who was too young for WW1, joined the army in 1940 but was soon discharged after being injured. Coincidentally to this video later my granddad was a dock manager in Calcutta when he died in 1943. He was working 18 hours a day to untangle the mess at his dock during the war as ships arrived to service the war in Burma and China. Many dock workers fled because of Japanese bombing and there was civil unrest and a famine in Bengal.

[@keithrobertsson2164]

I hope that wherever the CLH regimental colours are located a battle honor for Goa has been added.

[@akashahuja2346]

I suspect the colours have been left behind in a bar or brothel somewhere 😁

[@RobertKFall]

I'm having a problem with the disrespectful remarks made about the CLH. They were a "marching and chowder society" which turned out to have very sharp teeth. Members did their duty for King-Emporer and Country.

[@heinrichzerbe]

Brilliant! Thoroughly enjoyed this tale. And the fact that this actually happened, makes it truly amazing

[@Huffman_Tree]

Last time I was this early this video would have been called "A point about how middle-aged amateurs defeated the German navy"

[@MrDowntemp0]

no one cares

[@Huffman_Tree]

@@MrDowntemp0 I am sure Lloyd's excellent video will improve your mood! Enjoy.

[@commanderboreal1343]

Corey seems to be in a good mood today Hope ya get better

[@drinks1019]

That is one obscure comment but I respect the reference.

[@QualityPen]

@@MrDowntemp0 is just bitter they will never be a middle-aged amateur who defeats the German Navy.

[@Astronist]

It sounds like the Portuguese authorities had decided to turn a blind eye and allow the British to do what they needed to do.

[@jimtaylor294]

Well they are our oldest overseas chum ;-) .

[@gladyslustgirdle3004]

I believe Lisbon was an open city during the war, and Portugal was neutral until 1944.

[@techmage89]

Very likely... Portugal was sympathetic to the Allies, and stayed neutral mostly because they didn't want to provoke Spain.

[@smellthecoffee5314]

I was thinking the same - the guy with searchlight that was pointed everywhere apart from where all the noise and flames and explosions were coming from :) Also the Portuguese Police Patrol craft refusing to take the German sailors back to their boat and pootling off in an helpful way - it makes you wonder. Oh and "no taxis" from the party - the Germans had to walk to the port I think those incredibly brave lads had some unexpected support from the Portuguese so hats off to them also.

[@davidw.2791]

@@gladyslustgirdle3004 I think Portugal stayed neutral the whole way, while their famous ex-colony Brazil, joined the allies by either 1943 or 1944.

[@quaesitrix881]

I love your videos, especially those in which you talk about obscure events in history like this one. You always choose such fascinating stories, and you are terribly good at recounting them. You always manage to make them both instructive and entertaining. And all in a single take, without one dull moment, in a 1h40 video ! That is really impressive !

[@julijansidneypicej4701]

I cant believe i was glued to the monitor for 1h and 40 minutes... You my friend are the single best explainer of things in the whole universe. Like.... i can't believe how easy it is to watch hours of your content. You are genuine and a legendary educator. Thank you! Regards from Slovenia

[@maxjones503]

Sten gun, notoriously unreliable, jams. 'Damn German ammo'.

[@crustycurmudgeon2182]

*Sten

[@PaulRudd1941]

@@crustycurmudgeon2182 probably an autocorrect typo

[@-YELDAH]

Max Jones let’s just put it down to an unreliable combination

[@Hollows1997]

Well of course, it couldn’t possibly be the fine British engineering at play.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

tbf, most of its issues were with the magazines which probably didn't like german ammunition on top of being slightly fragile

[@ssgeem]

I genuinely laughed out loud at the twist at the end

[@roguegen5536]

I did too. That was a great ending. Talk about the odds.

[@hairyneil]

I laughed out loud when I saw the video length....bloomin feature length lindybeige videos, 2020 isn't all bad!

[@SgtKOnyx]

@@hairyneil now imagine an EFAP

[@NightShadowReal]

what's the twist? my friend can't figure it out

[@faceless360]

@@NightShadowReal I think the fact that one of them had to work on the insurance claims for the ships he had sunk?

[@xeverettx2564]

Wow I’ve been saving this video to watch with morning coffee for almost two years, waiting for the right day and this morning it hit me! So I sat in my arm chair sipn coffee and watching and completely amazed!!! Well done Lloyd, a true Lindybeige classic and you sir are a British Master, a national treasure!!

[@xeverettx2564]

It’s just too bad I’m Irish so I can’t be allowed to be your biggest fan!! #HAILHAILTHEBHOYS!

[@MrDHCrockett]

Outstanding work, Lloyd! This video has had me more engaged than any feature length action film. I do so appreciate your style and passion.

[@mrblowhard2u]

The real version of the story sounds way more interesting than the movie. You mentioned the use of contemporary clothing (1970's) in the movie.....what gets me is men's modern hairstyles in period movies.

[@davidjones332]

I remember seeing an interview about the 1969 Battle of Britain film (another one with masses of anachronisms, not least the hairstyles). The argument was that hair was worn so long in the 60s and 70s, that if they had given everybody authentic 1940 short-back-and-sides haircuts, viewers would have been so distracted that they wouldn't have followed the dialogue. I don't buy it myself.

[@ajvanmarle]

Women's hairstyles can be even more annoying. I get so tired of seeing 'Medieval' women walk around with their hair hanging loose.

[@Golesh02]

@@ajvanmarle yeah I bet medival women not even once walked around with ther hair hanging loose

[@ajvanmarle]

@@Golesh02 Only up to the time when they were of marriageable age. Loose hair was a mark of young girls. A grown woman with her hair hanging loose in public would have been considered a hooker

[@logitimate]

10:30 to 10:45 This is a really poor summary of the diplomatic situation. Portugal's official position was that the Anglo-Portuguese alliance (the oldest in the world to still be active to this day) obligated them to join the war on the Allied side *if Britain invoked the relevant treaties and requested their assistance* , but that unless and until Britain did so, they were free to remain neutral, and intended to take advantage of that freedom. And the British position - I'm not sure whether publicised, but certainly laid out *in writing* in internal government documents - was that this was exactly correct, and that Britain was making a conscious choice not to bring Portugal into the war! The concern was not that Portugal might go the way of Spain, but that if Portugal joined the Allies - or even just went *too far* in being pro-Allied in its "neutrality" - this would tip *Spain* from pro-Axis "neutrality" to open support for the Axis, which would rapidly result in a German occupation of the entire peninsula. So the British calculated that a pro-Allied (albeit within fairly strict limits) "neutral" Portugal and a pro-Axis "neutral" Spain was a better combination than an Axis-member Spain and an Axis-occupied Portugal (with an Allied-member government in exile).

[@akashahuja2346]

Thank you for that informative comment, makes a lot of sense

[@andrewhawkins6754]

As a small note to this, Spain refused to join the war for fear of losing the US grain imports it needed. I'm not sure if the brits were aware of this or not.

[@briannicholas2757]

And let's not forget that the head of the German Abwehr, Admiral Cannaris was actively working against German success in the war, and since he was sent to "persuade" Franco to join Nazi Germany, you can guess just how convincing he was. Coupled with the potential loss of US grain exports to Spain and pretty much the wholesale bribery of most of Franco's top military commanders with regular deliveries of suitcases full of US cash, Spain entering on the side of the Nazi's was another of Hitler's drug induced fantasies. No self respecting Spanish Fascist was going to trade in that cash cow for a Nazi army of occupation (they could see how well that worked out for the Italians).

[@chrisbrace2204]

There was a lot of this with Neutral nations. A similar determination that Ireland should remain neutral resulted in anyone escaping from the Internment camp in Dublin and making it to Northern Ireland being arrested in the first half of the war, and put on a train back to Dublin to hand themselves back in.

[@1crazypj]

It's really interesting to see the information that may be really obscure in various countries being applied in one place to further the knowledge of anyone caring to look through comments. Thank you for the post and the others who commented on it

[@rossy3486]

What an absolute perfect way to spend some time on a Friday night. Thank you for the wonderful storytelling and research. Magnificent!

[@TheGreatBirchTree]

Despite my adhd a good ole' war story from lindy still manages to command my full attention for 100 minutes straight. Great video and storytelling, Well done!

[@caveman123ization]

I love how these guys started drinking the minute they got off of the German ship. These guys were the real deal.

[@haroldellis9721]

If your Sten jams? More like, when your Sten jams, but I still want one.

[@aebirkbeck2693]

the sten gun was really quite efficient if handled properly, not like you see in war films where they hold the magazine, because this is what causes the most problems. The magazine well is not that tight fit with the magazine due to the manufacturing process so it causes the magazine twist and rattle slightly and this causes the round not to line up with the chamber and it jams. Apart from that it wasn't too bad a weapon. :>)

[@christopherconard2831]

Amateurs with minimal training in a high stress situation, it is quite likely he did grab the magazine to hold it steady.

[@filmandfirearms]

@@aebirkbeck2693 Thing is, you can grab the magazine of most other weapons and it won't cause any issues. It might not be the best way to hold the gun, but it won't cause mechanical trouble. To be fair, the Sten was just made to be cheaply mass produced and quality was a secondary concern at best, so a pretty good gun when you take that into consideration

[@aebirkbeck2693]

@@filmandfirearms Very true but I was lucky enough to fire Mk2 and the magazine well was a neat fit and it behaved very well no rattling apart from it firing and out to around 50 yds you could walk it on to the target reasonably well.

[@filianablanxart8305]

A friend of mine had a ( built on aftermarket reciever by specialty mfg ) STEN . It was very controllable . He could do a continous mag dump into a double fist sized group @ 25yds . Pretty much all that you could expect for a 2nd Generation SMG , and better than a lot .

[@joniinscoe4284]

The way he said "nor his wife Gretta" is the best laugh I've had in a long time

[@milo8425]

I swear you are the best storyteller on the tube. Please never run out of them.

[@miscellaneous.7127]

Lloyd: "I want you to imagine that you are British..." Well, by the grace of god I am!

[@thomaswilkinson3241]

Kraut here.

[@LiveErrors]

Not for this moment

[@Richard0292]

Lottery of life won.

[@michelguevara151]

as a frenchman, I commend you Sir

[@poshboy4749]

Despite of all temptations.

[@Balpindo]

I'm convinced lindy's the best storytelling historian out there

[@dustyroads834]

A well told story of another WW2 event that I’ve never heard of before. Thank you so much !!!

[@poochkane]

This was awesome, thanks so much for the hard work you put into researching and sharing this story!!

[@Quasimodo-mq8tw]

"Well done italians. Late as usual" That broke me :-D

[@sam1812seal]

Operation CREEK wasn’t the first time SOE set out to ‘borrow’ some axis ships from a nominally neutral harbour. Operation POSTMASTER which was carried out in January ‘42 was an almost identical plan, even down to duplicating the ruse of inviting the crews to a rather drunken party. The only difference between the operations was that POSTMASTER succeeded in borrowing the ships.

[@rmk3155]

Tallio Jerry, we'll be "borrowing" these ships for the time being.

[@BaronSamedi1959]

And that operation was one of the early successes of SOE. It happened not in India, but on the tiny island of Fernando Po (now Bioko, Gulf of Guinee, West Africa) then a Spanish colony and the ship was the Italian "Duchessa d'Aosta", plus two smaller German barges Burundi and Likomba. They were all towed out to sea into international waters where they "happened" to meet a Royal Navy vessel that could legally capture them. The cover story was that the vessels tried to make it back to the homeland but ran into a Royal Navy patrol. Spain was furious about this breach of the country's neutrality. Germany didn't believe a word of the British denials.

[@golem5809]

@@BaronSamedi1959 They didn't believe the denials? Well - they could have declared war...oh, wait. Then a strong note of protest will have to do.

[@kmc7355]

@@BaronSamedi1959 I worked there in Equatorial Guinea (Bioko island) for 5 years setting up subsea oil fields with an ROV. That is all 😊

[@wuffothewonderdog]

Fernando Po and Guinea amalgamated later to form the new and literary state Guinea the Po.

[@CaseyHarrisSr]

You are quite a performer, story teller, and a delight to hear & watch! Thank you so very much from Arizona, USA.

[@walkergarya]

This has to be one of the strangest stories to come out of WWII. It could only have been stranger if "Mad Jack" Churchill had been involved.

[@terryfoyfoy7926]

Well he wasnt

[@PobortzaPl]

"They gun them with Sten gun fire... They were in a hurry" And here was I thinking they did it because no one gave them Webley revolvers.

[@LemmingFNSR]

My uncle used .45 Webley in ww2 in combat. He maintained it would stop a charging bull at 5 yards. But you wouldn’t hit it at 10....

[@blahblah-hw3xg]

Ahh... ready to listen to one of the greatest orators of our time A man made entirely out of beard, beige and history.... (Plus a rant or two every now and again)

[@QualityPen]

(And Britishness)

[@monsieurcouchy7564]

One of your best videos ever Lindy. Great work, loved it!

[@aighti]

You're so much fun to watch, you tell your stories with a lot of energy

[@arkadeepkundu4729]

4:49 47:49 Anyone noticed that the third German freighter in Goa was named Drachenfels? Drach has some explaining to do.

[@DunrikIronhammer]

Do you mean Drachinifel?

[@arkadeepkundu4729]

@@DunrikIronhammer Yeah. Never expected him to be a WW2 German freighter in disguise. He looks remarkably human.

[@garymingy8671]

Open tube s ,come 10° port...4 on my command

[@davidbrennan660]

Drach is considered to be an Auxiliary Cruiser, he has hard points to mount weapons of at least 6” and Torpedoes .

[@munk7917]

Actually Jingles...

[@davidharwood2746]

I'm such an old fan Lloyd. i've been watching for years. Just want to let you know that whenever I see a new video of yours (which I check everyday), it feels like Christmas. Thanks so much for this. Hope you're doing well.

[@KyleOber]

how did you end up in Taiwan?

[@davidharwood2746]

@kyle ober I moved here 2 days before the pandemic took off. lol. Now I live here. It's wonderful.

[@slartybartfarst55]

Brilliant story! And so much fun to watch Lindybeige "recreating" it!

[@techman2471]

Fantastic history lesson. This is some of the history we Yanks never get taught. Thank you bringing "Light" to this mission.

[@cookingonthecheapcheap6921]

Me: been awhile since a lindy video Lindy: 1:40:00 Me: aaaaahhhh, nuf said.

[@crimsonstare]

That was the shortest 1hour 40mins I've ever experienced. Fascinating stuff.

[@mcpartridgeboy]

It shows how good yo are at presenting videos, most of the time i dont have patience for more than 15 mins, but these i wish were even longer, really good story and so well presented too, thankyou.

[@Subtleknife12367]

Thank you for this. It is the perfect companion for me whilst I'm cooking. Absolutely brilliant. If you ever start doing battlefield tours I would sign up in an instant.😅😅 The story telling of these historical moments is great.

[@toddrobertson8505]

LOL My military role playing campaigns no longer seem so outlandish.

[@QualityPen]

This makes my Medieval 2: Total War campaign where Genoa migrated to Rhodes and Crete for the purpose of crusade seem sane.

[@ianj1828]

I absolutely love the long rambling stories. I would absolutely listen top these whenever you make them, and if I met you in a pub, I'd keep your glass full to hear them.

[@georgeagar4210]

I’ve never heard anyone get outraged about a zipped cardigan, but I love it

[@sargeinamerica]

I just love this gentleman, his energy is amazing and I truly could listen to him describe how to remove shelf paper from your cabinet and then a complete dissertation on he history of widgets!!!

[@neonclear8500]

Lloyd, you rambling on about random stuff is why I subscribed in the first place. Never change. Your rambles, is rambles a word? If not, it is now. Your rambles are a treasure, and never let anyone tell you otherwise.

[@oracle8192]

Well before the word rambles was coined, the term used was "rambling." Seems rather archaic now in the days of rambles, ever since the infamous comment under the yet more infamous video. But way back when the sentence would've gone "your rambling was exactly why I subscribed in the first place!"

[@jimjamjimjam7700]

I just love it when Lloyd is in his element, telling us a story he really enjoyed! 😄👏

[@MrMali22]

Yes we love your videos to be quite long. You are probably the only person up ever listen through an hour and a half ramble and enjoy it. Never change my friend.

[@paulthegaull]

thanks for another great tale lindybeige!

[@SpittinSquirell]

These hour+ long videos are my favorite. It's like watching old school History Channel. You know before aliens and bigfoot took over.

[@rashkavar]

I do love hearing anecdotes about the SOE's antics. WWII history is by and large incredibly grim, but the intelligence war's primary ingredients seem to be equal parts awesome and hysterical. Most of the stories I've heard are either insane stunts the SOE managed to pull off spiced up with comedy moments like the officer hiding the sand leaking out of the "gold bullion" crate, or totally ludicrous stories like Juan Pujol Garcia's stunt where, after failing to join British intelligence, he fakes an identity as a Spanish official, signs up with German intelligence, goes to Lisbon and starts writing completely fraudulent accounts of the war based on watching/listening to British propaganda and using references on the UK found in the public library.

[@victoresan]

I need to hear more of this

[@marcroelse9517]

or about german antics

[@rashkavar]

@@victoresan The Wikipedia article on Juan Pujol Garcia is a quite enjoyable read, as a starting point. If you prefer a more presentational format, there's a documentary called The Secret War from 2011 that covers him in the episode "Agent Garbo," as well as a number of other highlights of the intelligence world in WWII (it primarily tells of British and, to a lesser extent, American successes in that realm, though one episode does detail some successes of the Nazis against a resistance operation). For a less complete but more amusing discussion, there's an old KZbin show called Citation Needed which did an episode on Juan Pujol Garcia - they had one person read out the title of a wikipedia article and ask leading questions while the others guessed what happened. Another interesting documentary, if you can find it, is called Bugging Hitler's Soldiers, which details a heavily bugged POW camp for German officers in WWII at Trent Park, run by MI19....yes, 19. They made it very comfortable - the chief agent running the camp posed as a British nobleman who'd offered up his manor and his staff to host high ranking prisoners, as it would be improper to let men of their noble standing be kept in tents, and provided them newspapers to provoke discussions. This was one of the first ways the Allies found out the extent of the Holocaust, though since the Brits didn't want to give the Soviets any good ideas for after the war, they kept it secret for decades. The whole operation apparently only came to light because the recorded transcripts were published in a mass declassification decades later and some historian writing a paper on a particular U-boat captain had done a blanket search of the British archives for his name...and came back with thousands of pages of transcripts that he'd never seen before, in addition to all the documentation he had found.

[@johnsomebody1753]

@@rashkavar Thanks so much for that info

[@fscreations7373]

I love this story. I listen to it on a fairly regular basis. Thanks for recounting it

[@user-hv2qi2xb9v]

I actually watched this whole video and was captivated the entire time. This guy should be on TV. Shout out Lindybeige ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻✊

[@GG_Man123]

On KZbin, I almost never watch videos that are more than 30 minutes long, But I can watch Lloyd talk about one small part of history for 2 hours and I don't get bored whatsoever

[@ottovonbismarck2443]

Hilarious. That story is so typical British that it wears shorts in January. Kindest regards from Germany.

[@dheemanrajkhowa2866]

You actually can wear shorts in January in many places in India...

[@ottovonbismarck2443]

@@dheemanrajkhowa2866 :-)

[@ottovonbismarck2443]

@@williambodin5359 That's what I tried to say,

[@1crazypj]

@@williambodin5359 Reminds me of John Cleese in Fawlty Towers, ( or 'Flowery Twats' in one episode) 'don't mention the war' etc. "You started it" 'No I didn't, you did, you invaded Poland' It's more 'English' than British though (I'm from Welsh Wales up the valley's boyo)

[@johnsomebody1753]

A German friend, is the only person I've known, who made fun of English men for wearing socks with sandals. But the more I think of it, the more I realise that I never see anyone else doing that. And as if that's not odd enough, it seems perfectly reasonable to me, wanting maximum ventilation, with reasonable warmth. My German friend would just smile, and agree, infuriatingly. But I still love her

[@lomax343]

My grandfather was one of those deemed too young for WW1 and too old for WW2. I'm rather glad about this.

[@alfnoakes392]

Mine too, he spent the war as a fireman on "the Home Front".

[@lomax343]

@@alfnoakes392 coincidence: My grandfather served n the London Auxiliary Fire Brigade during the Blitz, spending much f his time on the roof of St Paul's acting as a fire-spotter.

[@steveblanmag7410]

Thank you, Mr Lloyd. What a great story.