Untitled - formasette Media Production

Ben Major is a Major Survival Expert.
He was in the Army for 9 years, graduating from Sandhurst Military Academy, and
since leaving the army has led dangerous expeditions all over the world.
He’s climbed some of the highest mountains, led expeditions to some of
the most remote corners of the planet and has survived to tell the tale.
But now he’s going to put himself to the ultimate test, to see if he can survive in
the habitat, trenches and tough conditions of some of the most famous Front
Line Battles in History, just like the toughest soldiers. In this exhilarating new
series, Ben takes a look at some of the most famous battles fought on the
Front Line – and how the soldiers managed to survive against incredible odds.
Each episode will focus on the heroic and extraordinary survival skills of the
soldiers in some of the planet’s harshest fought over land, examining the military
techniques and tips to stay alive. In each different location, whether swamp,
desert or mountain, Ben is catapulted into a new and harsh habitat and is put
to the test in the toughest of conditions. He will follow a bloody route on the
Frontline, finding out about the weapons and tactics of warfare.
From the cold Arctic wastes of Norway and Russia to the deserts of the
Middle East, during the Nazi occupied Second World War, Ben will follow in the
footsteps of real life war heroes. He will find out about their incredible
survival stories and discover the “Badass” soldiers of the war - those
guys who have amazing survival skills and who are literally indestructible.
From the heroic American solders who survived the Bataan Death March, to
British officer Frederick Spencer Chapman who said that the Jungle was
Neutral and made it his own in the impenetrable jungles of Malaya.
Ben will discover the heroism of Jan Baalstrud in Arctic Norway, and frontline
pilot Alexey Marasev who was shot over enemy territory in the Nazi occupied
taiga forests of wilderness Russia. As well as the central characters for each
episode, there will be a strong supporting cast of British survivors, like John
Frederick Dumford-Slater and Max Harari who will demonstrate
their resilience and will power under the most toughest of conditions.
History will be brought to life with re-enactments and genuine storytelling.
These local re-enactors, with authentic costumes and props, will play out the
narrative of the war - they will be the soldiers and armies of specific battles as
they face the extreme conditions of combat. Ben will find out about the weapons,
soldiers and warfare used, while driving the narrative forward with immersive and
engaging storytelling and hands on survival tips from those who show incredible
perseverance against all odds.
EPISODE 1 - THE ARCTIC – JAN BAALSRUD
Norwegian officer Jan Baalsrud escapes from Nazis in the Arctic
Ben is in a military helicopter traveling over the Arctic, accompanied by the
Telemark Battalion, a mechanized infantry unit of the Norwegian Army, and rapid
reaction force completely at home in the cold Arctic conditions. The Arctic is the
coldest and one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. Yet within the freezing
temperatures and blinding blizzards mask extraordinary tales of major survival –
such as the case of Jan Baalsrud.
Ben is dropped into the Arctic by the Telemark Battalion. Arctic warfare gives
rise to armed conflict that takes place in an exceptionally cold climate, usually in
snow and icy terrain.
During the Second World War, Jan Baalsrud was a member of the Linge’s
Company, a British Special Operations Executive Group formed in March 1941,
originally for the purpose of performing commando raids during the Nazi
occupation of Norway. The SOE were a secret branch of the UK military tasked
by Winston Churchill to ‘set Europe ablaze’. Included in the crew were James
Bond creator Ian Flemming who derived inspiration for 007 and the group were
stationed at Baker Street.
Jan Baalsrud
In March 1943, Baalsrud, three other commandos and the boat crew of eight,
all Norwegians, embarked on a dangerous mission to destroy a German air
control tower at Bardufoss. They sailed from England to Nazi occupied Norway
to organize and supply the Norwegian resistance.
But as Ben explains, the boat was attacked by a German vessel on March 30th,
and Baalsrud dove into the ice-cold waters, bullets flying around him, and swam
ashore. Ben demonstrates the freezing effects of the water on your body in a
survival situation by immersing himself in cold water and showing how to get dry
before hypothermia sets in.
Baalsrud was the lone survivor and was able to evade capture, and make it to the
beach, as he escaped by climbing a 200ft snow gully, where he shot and killed
the leading German Gestapo officer with his pistol.
Poorly clothed, and with one foot entirely bare, as he had lost one of his sea
boots, and part of his big toe shot off, Baalsrud was relentlessly pursued through
the Arctic by the Nazis, about 50 Germans, as he left a trail of blood through the
snow. Ben follows his trail, as he scrambled across the island and swam successively across the icy sound to two other islands. On the second, he lay dying of
cold and exhaustion.
Alone in the wilderness, Baalsrud’s goal was to march through mile after mile of
unbroken snow towards neutral Sweden. Sometimes he marched for as long as
28 hours without rest. En route to then Lyngen Alps, a fierce storm took hold,
and an avalanche flung his body 300 feet down a sheer drop to a valley floor.
Baalsrud survived the avalanche – he was buried alive for days under the snow.
He lost his gloves, hat and rucksack with food in the avalanche. He fought his
way over the Norwegian mountains and tundra. He evaded capture for almost
two months, suffering from frostbite and snow blindness. He survived for three
days wandering around completely snow blinded. Ben shows how to dig a snow
hole that Baalsrud lived in for almost two weeks.
Ben is taken to his next location by the Telemark’s Army CV-90, infantry
fighting vehicles and Leopard 2 tanks. These are all purpose vehicles suitable for
the Arctic terrain.
Only a few months before Jan Baalsrud’s incredible journey, one of the most
famous raids against the Nazis by the SOE occurred – the Norwegian heavy
water sabotage, codename Operation Gunnerside Ben describes how on
October 19th 1942, a four man team of Special Operations Executive trained
Norwegian commandos parachuted into the Hardangervidda plateau in Norway.
From their drop point in the wilderness, they had to ski long distance to the
Vemork plant, a hydroelectric plant outside Rjukan in Norway, the first site to
mass produce heavy water for nuclear weapons. The SOE were controlled by radio directly from Britain. The first agent inside the plant was Einar Skinnarland,
who was later decorated for his achievements in sabotaging the plant. Ben will
discover how a few commandoes was able to holt German’s plans for nuclear
war.
Einar Skinnarland
Another British Army Officer, John Frederick Durnford-Slater was credited with
raising the first Army Commando Unit during the Second World War. He led
a force of 250 men from No 3. Commando on a highly successful raid on the
Lofoten Islands in Norway, which Ben says was known as “Operation Archery”,
taking place over 26th-28th December 1941. Central to the operation was the
destruction of fish oil production and stores, which the Germans used in the
manufacture of high explosives. Perhaps the most significant outcome of the
raid was the capture of a set of rotor wheels for an Enigma Cypher Machine
and its code books from the German Krebs. This enabled German Naval Codes
to be read at Bletchley Park, providing the intelligence needed to allow allied
convoys to avoid U Boat concentrations.
The raid was successful and later Dumford-Slater received the Distinguished
Service Order. He returned to the UK to being planning for D-Day.
John Frederick Durnford-Slater
Ben resumes the trail that Baalsrud took towards safety, making his way over
the Norwegian mountains. He began walking in the general direction of the
mainland, with hikes of 24, 13 and 28 hours without a break. He then stumbles
into the village of Mandal. The locals were willing to save him and help him
escape back home to Sweden.
In a wooden hut at Revdal, which Baalsrud called “Hotel Savoy”, he was forced to
operate on his legs with a pocket knife. He believed that he had blood poisoning
and that drawing the blood out would help. What saved his life was his medical
knowledge and a strong will to survive.
Not long after that, Baalsrud was left on a high stretcher in the snow for 27 days
due to weather and Nazi patrols in the town of Mandal, his life hanging by a
thread. He lay behind a snow wall built around a rock to shelter him – this is when
he amputated nine of his toes to strop the spread of gangrene – an action that
saved his life.
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Ben is in admiration of the mental and physical strength of Jan Baalsrud who
traveled over 125 miles against all the odds to survive. He died in Norway in 1988,
at the age of 71.
EPISODE 2 – TAIGA FOREST – ALEXEY MARESYEV
Russian Frontline pilot is shot down in Nazi occupied Russia
Ben is flying with the 76th Guards Air Assault Division of the Russian Airborn
Troops, over the immense Taiga forest. In Russia, the world’s largest Taiga
forest stretches about 3,600 miles.
Chances of survival in this inhospitable habitat are low. But one man was able to
survive this wilderness and make it out alive – Alexey Maresyev, a Soviet Front
line Pilot of the Russian Army in World War 2.
Alexey Maresyev
In March 1942, Alexey Maresyev was flying his Polikarpov I-16 plane when he
successfully shot down four German aircraft over the Eastern Front. But on the
April 4th, 1924, Maresyev’s luck ran out. He got into a dog fight with two Nazi
warplanes, and they fought him so hard that he could not get out of the trap –
his plane was downed in a forest near the city of Staraya, North West Russia – a
territory that was occupied by the Nazis at the time.
Ben is dropped into the taiga with an air assault operation of the 76th G.A.A
Division; they land the Mi-26, the largest and most powerful helicopter ever to
have been built, in a grassy clearing surrounded by tall trees in the heart of the
forest. The landscape has not changed from the time Maresyev landed there.
Ben starts his journey on the very ground where Alexey Maresyev crashed.
Marysev managed to bailout from the flaming aircraft with a parachute. During
the landing he badly injured his legs. Ben retraces his steps, relaying how much
Maresyev’s legs were injured after the crash. Despite that, Maresyev had to fight
for his life in the taiga, and he started crawling in search for help.
Ben shows how Maresyev managed to survive, because he was able to endure
the terrible pain through sheer willpower. He was also able to navigate in the
impenetrable woods, despite the many dangers, such as ferocious predators like
bears, wolves, and lynx, which would find Maresyev easy prey because of his
injured legs.
In addition, the taiga is very difficult to navigate - one site looks identical to the
other. Ben will demonstrate how not to walk in circles, and how he should follow
closely the planned route. Temperatures drop in the subarctic climate, with long
and cold nights, and Ben shows how to keep warm by building a shelter.
Ben tells us how Maresyev knew exactly the technique to build a shelter
sleeping between the fuel pile and a fire under the most protective tree found or
the different practical fire to use in the Taiga: the parallel woodfire (warming and
cooking) and the starfire (sectioning) or the snowsurface fire.
Ben also explains the philosophy of survival in the wilderness. What helped
Maresyev to survive was his burning desire to live. Because of his legs, it was
extremely painful for him to travel, not allowing him for a second to relax. He
was lost in the forest behind the enemy line as he had to be careful to avoid any
accidental contact of the Nazi patrols who would kill him on sight.
Marysev searched for food on the move. The taiga is a challenging habitat, and
protein is scarce to come by. Maresyev found his nutrition from plant foods. Ben
shows what plants can be eaten in the taiga, and demonstrates how it is possible
to successfully catch fish with bare hands in the pond of any type, if you follow
the fundamental rules.
An MD1, the Russian airbone amphibious tracked infantry fighting vehicle carries
Ben on the front of the the Demyansk Pocket. The name was given to the pocket
of German troops encircled by the Red Army around Demyansk during World
War 11 on the Eastern Front. The pocket existed mainly from 8 February-21 April
1942 and is remembered as the biggest of the war.
Ben tells how the fighting around the town of Demyansk was one of the largest
encirclement battles on the Eastern Front during the Second World War.
It’s success was a major contributor to the decision to try the same tactics
during the Battle of Stalingrad. Vasily Zaytsev was a hero of the Stalingrad, who
was born in the taiga. Ben tells how he learned his markmanship by hunting
deer and wolves with his family. One of Zaytsev’s common tactics was to cover
one large area from three positions, with two men at each point, a sniper and a
scout - Zaytsev was a pioneer of the sniper war which gave much lustre to the
Soviet 62nd Army.
Vasily Zaytsev
On August 1942, another Russian pilot named Vitaliy Popkov was shot down
after an intense air battle and fell almost 3000 metres. His parachute barely
opened and he crashed into a swamp, with only moss to soften the blow.
Vitaliy Popkov
After 18 days in the taiga forest, fighting pain and hunger, Maresyev managed to
reach the village of Plavni. The members of the peasant family were frightened
when they first saw him and he was too weak to answer any of their questions.
They took him in and managed to bring him back to life even though there was
no doctor in the village. A week after, a Soviet plane landed near the village and
Maresyev was taken to hospital.
By that time, his legs had become badly frostbitten and had to be amputated.
But Maresyev refused to give up. After a long and painful struggle he learnt how
to fly with prosthetic legs. In 1943, he became a squadron leader. During one
mission Maresyev shot down 3 enemy planes. In August 1943, Aleksey Maresyev
was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal, the highest military award in
the Soviet Union. He only died in 2001 on his 85th birthday.
The story of a pilot surviving in a winter taiga after his plane was shot down by
the Nazi Germans during WWII became one of the most genuinely loved in the
Soviet Union. Maresyev said once, “There’s nothing extraordinary in what I have
done. The fact that I’ve been turned into a legend irritates me.” But his heroism
is testament to his amazing survival skills.
EPISODE 3 – JUNGLE – HIROO ONODA
Japanese officer Hiroo Onoda’s longest holdout in the Philippines
Ben is travelling with the First Scout Ranger Regiment of the Philippine Army
Special Operations Command.
The regiment is one of the world’s best anti-guerilla fighters, who fight and
train in the hot and humid rainforest where temperatures reach up to 35C.
Ben is dropped in the mountain jungles of Lubang Island, Philippines.
He tells the story of Hiroo Onoda, an Imperial Japanese Army intelligence officer.
When the Philippines were invaded by the Japanese in December 1941 shortly
after Japan’s declaration of war upon the United States, the US controlled the
Philippines at the time and had important military bases there.
Hiroo Onoda
But Onoda did not surrender when the war came to an end in 1945. He had
literally taken his final order to stay and fight. Instead, he went into
hiding in the mountains of Lubang Island and lived in the jungle for the
next 29 years, holding the record for the longest hold out of any soldier.
Ben shows how Onoda managed to survive in the rainforest and evade capture
for all those years. Onoda survived on a diet of rice, coconuts and meat, and he
tormented the Filippino forces on his trail by eluding them. He set up a series of
hideouts on the 74 square mile island, and by stealing food, and making sure
his caches of live ammo were kept intact. He cut the bananas up, skin included
and boiled them. The green bananas lost their bitterness this way, and they were
often cooked in coconut milk. Onoda also slaughtered the occasional cow which
strayed from the village and would hang meat out to dry.
As Ben demonstrates, clothes often rot and get soaked in the rainforest.
Onoda made a needle from some wire netting that he found, which he
straightened and managed to put an eye on one end.
He made thread from the fibres of a hemp-like plant that grew wild in the forest.
Fishing line was also used for thread. He would patch and patch, and then even
take pieces of canvas from the edges of his tents.
The Bataan Death March began in the Philippines on April 9th 1942. The POWS
received little food or water and many died along the way from heat and
exhaustion. Some drank water from filthy water buffalo wallows on the side of
the road. Ben recounts the story of Colonel Glenn D. Frazier, an Alabama boy who
ran away to join the army at the age of 16, and six months later was part of the
doomed struggle to save Bataan in the Philippines from the Japanese advance.
Ben demonstrates how to make a shelter, just like Onoda. It had to be near food,
but not too far from where the cows grazed. It had to be on the opposite side of
the hill from the village so the fire or smoke would not be seen. He also built it on
sloping ground. He would find one secure tree, and then build a pole structure
that was secured to at least this one tree. Rafters were placed slantwise on the
ridgepole and covered with coconut leaves. Everything was tied together with
vines.
Using wire, cans, and other materials, Ben shows how Onoda constructed rat
traps, and snares for other small game. He waits to see if he catches anything.
Onoda maintained his rifle, ammunition and sword in impeccable order, and his
ammunition was used to make fire. He would remove the powder from ammo
that was rusty and ignite it with a lens. He also would make fire using two dried
pieces of split bamboo. One piece was hammered into the ground, and the other
piece, held horizontally, would be stroked up and down to produce the coal.
Ben travels up river in a Riverine Assault Boat, used by the Special Operations
Command of the Army. This small riverine craft is used by the US Marines and
Navy to maintain control of the rivers and waterways. He tells the gruesome tale
of the Bataan Death March. Thousands of American and Filipino troops were captured following the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. Albert Brown was one
American who was forced along with 78,000 Allied prisoners of war to march 65
miles from Bataan to a POW camp without food, water or medicine.
Ben walks along the route of the Bataan Death march where 2,500–10,000
Filipino and 100–650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach
their destination at Camp O’Donnell. Ben recounts the story that an estimated
11,000 prisoners died during the march, including those who were killed when
they fell in the jungle. Albert Brown recorded the events he witnessed in
secret using a small writing tablet and pencil hidden inside his canvas bag’s lining.
He witnessed the killing of Filipinos who had attempted to throw fruit to the
prisoners in the march. The Battle of Bataan represented the most intense phase
of Imperial Japan’s invasion of the Philippines during World War II.
The capture of the Philippine Islands was crucial to Japan’s effort to control the
Southwest Pacific. It was the largest surrender in American and Filipino military
history.
Albert Brown
When the war came to an end, Ben explains how Onoda continued his campaign
as a Japanese holdout, initially living in the mountains with three fellow soldiers,
Private Yūichi Akatsu, Corporal Shōichi Shimada and Private First Class Kinshichi
Kozuka. One emerged from the jungle in 1950, and the other two died. Onoda
was the only one to remain for 29 years.
During his stay, Onoda and his companions carried out guerrilla activities, killed
some 30 Filipino inhabitants of the island, and engaged in several shootouts
with the police. Onoda’s Nakano schooling made him a natural guerrilla fighter
living in huts they had built out of bamboo. They saw several leaflets announcing
that Japan had surrendered, however, they mistrusted them. It was only when his
former commander traveled from Japan to personally issue him orders, relieving
him from his duty.
He washed his face daily, and brushed his teeth with the fibre from the palm
trees. A doctor who examined Onoda after he came out of the jungle noted
that he had no cavities. Onoda hunkered down in the jungles of Lubang Island
for nearly three decades, refusing to believe that World War II had ended. After
returning home to Japan, Onoda said that the toughest part of the experience
was losing his comrades. He added that there was nothing at all pleasant that
happened to him during the entire 30 years. He died in Tokyo in January 2014 at
the age of 91.
EPISODE 4 – JUNGLE – FREDDIE SPENCER CHAPMAN
British Army officer Freddie Spencer Chapman in Malaysian Jungle
Ben is travelling in an Army Agusta A-109E Helicopter, with the 10th Para (10
Parachute Brigade). They are an Elite airborne brigade within the Malaysian army,
tasked with being rapidly deployed inside or outside the boundaries of Malaysia.
He parachutes into the jungle from the helicopter. Ben is on the trail of Frederick
Spencer Chapman, a British Army Officer and World War II Veteran, who fought
against Japan in occupied Malaya. Chapman’s survival skills had been honed as
an orphan, and he grew up to be solitary, self-reliant and resourceful, proving to
be one of the British Army’s deadliest agents.
Frederick Spencer Chapman
In 1941 Chapman was dispatched to Singapore to train British guerrillas for the
coming war with Japan. Setting out from Kuala Lumpur on 7 January 1942 on
a mission to sabotage Japanese supply lines, he became a veritable one-man
army. The Japanese deployed 2,000 men to search for what they believed was a
squad of 200 Australian guerrillas. Chapman led a small resistance war against
Japanese supply lines.
Following Japan’s invasion of Malaya and the fall of Singapore in February 1942,
Chapman found himself stranded. He was wounded twice during his time in
Malaya, once in the leg by a steel nut from a homemade cartridge and once in
the arm. He was captured both by Japanese troops and by Chinese bandits and
escaped from both. Once he was seventeen days unconscious, suffered from
tick-typhus, blackwater fever and pneumonia. Chronic malaria being the worst
of it.
But Ben says each time, Chapman recovered. The jungle he said was neutral: ‘”It
is the attitude of mind that determines whether you go under or survive.” By this
description he meant that one should view the surroundings as neither good
or bad but neutral. The role of a survivalist is to expect nothing and accept the
dangers and bounties of the jungle as of a natural course. His steady state of
mind was of the utmost importance to ensure that the physical health of body
and the will to live were reinforced on a daily basis. He developed his technique
for jungle bushcraft.
Ben is travelling with the Malaysian Troops in an ATMP (All Terrain Mobility
Platform). He follows the path where Chapman walked bare foot for six days.
Conditions were atrocious. Half-starved, delirious due to malaria and festering
ulcers from leech bites, Chapman and the two Brits he had eventually linked up
with, daubed themselves in dye, marched miles through the dense jungle by
night, and set about attacking the Japanese.
Chapman travelled to other guerilla camps and en route he lived with groups of
Chinese bandits, Malay tribespeople and communists. On one such visit he was
served a special banquet, with an unfamiliar meat. It was only later he learned
the hideous truth. ‘I was told I had been eating Jap,’ he wrote. ‘Though I would
not knowingly have become a cannibal, I was quite interested to have sampled
human flesh.’
As Ben relays, it was such extreme circumstances that Chapman was dubbed ‘the
jungle Lawrence’ by Field Marshal Wavell, because of his talent for survival. He
was relentlessly hunted by the Japanese army, and afflicted by typhus, scabies,
pneumonia, blackwater fever, cerebral malaria, dengue fever and ulcers before
finally being rescued and evacuated to Ceylon on 13 May 1945.
Weak and disoriented, misfortune finally caught up with Chapman: he stumbled
on a Japanese patrol and was captured.
But Chapman persuaded the Japanese officer not to tie him up and in the dead
of night he was able to wriggle out under the tent flap and escape into the
jungle once more. For six days he marched on his ulcerated, weakened legs,
light-headed with fever and hunger, barely stopping to sleep.
The steep ravines and mountains tested him to the limit, as Japanese planes
circled overhead searching for the British prey who had so humiliated them.
It was only when Chapman realised, to his horror, that he had been walking in
a huge circle that he finally despaired. He lay, sweating and feverish, in a jungle
shelter, singing old love songs and remembering former girlfriends.
‘It was an unpleasant sensation to lie there alone in the depths of the jungle,
convinced that I had only a few hours to live.’ He was just 36.
But Ben shows that Chapman once again recovered his strength and
eventually made it back to his old friends in the guerilla camp.
And in December 1943, he was overjoyed to be joined by two special forces
officers, John Davis and Richard Broome, who had been landed in Malaya by
submarine to coordinate guerilla activity for a planned Allied invasion. For
over a year they worked as a three-man unit, training Chinese guerillas, making
contact with other resistance groups and were able to repair their radio from
spare parts.
John Davis
At last, in February 1945, they obtained one and made contact with the
British forces in Ceylon, who were at first reluctant to believe that any of them,
but particularly Chapman, could possibly be alive after so long in the jungle.
A rescue plan was soon launched to bring the jungle heroes home and in May
1945, after a hazardous journey to the coast, they were picked up by submarine
and taken back to Ceylon.
Chapman’s heroic tale of survival was over and three months later Japan
finally surrendered. Chapman returned to Malaya by parachute in August to take
the Japanese surrender at Penang. Jungle Soldier is a unique and remarkable
account of superhuman bravery and resourcefulness in adversity.
He died at his home in the UK, after a long illness in 1971.
EPISODE 5 - DESERT – AMEDEO GUILLET
Italian guerilla officer fights against British in North Africa
Ben is in Yemen, onboard a light armored vehicle of the Special Air Service
Squadron which specializes in long-range exploration of the desert. He is on
the trail of a man of a thousand faces and a thousand names – soldier, guerilla,
spy, ambassador, hero – born with the name of Amedeo Guillet, but everyone
infamously knew him as the “Devil Commander”, becoming famous for his
courage.
Amedeo Guilet
Amedeo Guillet was an officer of the Italian Army during the Second World War.
One of the most famous officers in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia during the
Italian guerilla war against the Allies, Guillet was also one of the last men to have
commanded Horse Cavalry in Warfare, and led the last cavalry charge against
the British army. He assembled 100 native soldiers and began a hard guerrilla
war against the British.
Ben explains how the British started a real “manhunt” for Guillet using their best
intelligence officers, such as Major Max Harari of the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars.
A Bounty of more than 1000 pounds was also offered for Guillet, but the Tribal
Chiefs of the Desert wouldn’t betray him. Instead they offered Guillet shelter and
protection from the British.
Max Harari
Ben talks about the Long Range Desert Group, who were formed by the British
Army in Egypt after Italy declared war against the Allies in 1940. It was led by
British Major Ralph Bagnold, under General Archibald Wavell, who called them
the “Mosquito Army” and specialized in desert reconnaissance and information
gathering. There were often confrontations with the Italians, the Companies SelfSaharan aviation, between 1940-1943, deep behind enemy lines.
Archibald Wavell
Ben demonstrates how tough life was in the desert, as rations of water were
less than 3.5 litres per day. He shows how water was obtained in the desert from
underground wells and plants.
For 9 months Guillet launched a series of guerilla actions against the British
troops, plundering convoys and shooting up guard posts. He attacked and
pillaged British storages, trains and outposts, he blew up bridges and tunnels so
every means of communications became unstable.
One British General, Frank Walter Messervy, was an aggressive and effective
British Commander, whose West Yorkshire Regiment broke the Italian defence
of Guillet at Keren.
Frank Walter Messervy
Ben is on board on an armored vehicle of the Eritrean Army and arrives to the
coast of Red Sea, near the city of Massaua. Here Amedeo Guillet, thanks to
his perfect acknowledge of Arabic, assumed the identity of a Yemeni worker,
working in different guises as longshoreman, night-watchman and dipper.
Guillet then tried to cross the Red Sea on a boat (sambucco) of some smugglers,
but they were plundered and thrown into the sea. They survived and built a
shelter near a beach. They ate for ten days only molluscs and drunk water from
the plants, then they went forward into the desert.
Ben demonstrates how they managed to catch fish with a basic harpoon, and
lights a fire to cook the fish.
Guillet and his officer page named Daifallah, went into the desert; they hoped
to reach Massaua again. After 4 days of exhausting journey in which they
drunk only few cactus leaves and their own urine, they met a group of nomad
shepherds who instead of helping them, attacked them and left them in the
middle of the desert almost dying. Guillet and Daifallah with their skin burned
and dying, met a camel driver who cared them by his own home.
Ben is in the middle of the desert and shows how to find water from the cactus
and to build a shelter. He explains the high temperature range in the desert and
how many dangerous animals live there under the sand, such as the sand viper.
Finally Guillet arrived in the Yemen impersonating a relative of the camel driver.
He landed in the port of Hodeida, where he was arrested under suspicion of
being a spy. Ben visits the old prisons or Yemeni catacombs where Guillet was
imprisoned.
The British were still searching for Guillet who had a bounty on his head. When
they knew Guillet was arrested, the British Army asked for his extradition.
But the Imam Ahmed leader in Yemen wanted to know more about the Devil
Commander and after a short acquaintance, Amedeo became friends with him.
Amedeo lived in the court of Imam Ahmed for a year and instructed the guards
on how to ride and look after the horses. Finally he escaped and returned to
Massuaua and embarked on a ship of the Italian Red Cross, the Giulio Cesare,
towards Italy. He lived to the age of 101, only dying in Rome in 2010.
EPISODE 6 –MOUNTAINS – ITALIAN FRONT
Italian Alpini troops fight against the Austrians in the Dolomites
Ben is in an AB205 military helicopter flying over the Dolomites in Italy, the site
of intense fighting between Italy and Austria during the First World War. He is
traveling with the rangers of the 4th Alpini Parachute regiment, special mountain
troops of the Italian Army.
At the Falzarego Pass, the Alpini rapel down and secure the landing zone. Ben
is dropped onto the frontline with only an old rucksack and a few World War 1
props to survive. The Italian soldiers used a Carcano rifle which was the same
kind used to assassinate JFK in 1963. Ben walks through the heavy snowfall to
reach the Austrian Tre Sassi Fort which the Italians heavily bombed during the
war. The Austrians fooled the Italians into thinking that the fort was still occupied
by leaving the lights on, so that they would keep on firing and waste precious
ammunition.
Soon Ben reaches the bottom of the 3000ft Lagazuoi cliff face. He recounts the
tale of Italian Major Etore Martini, who climbed to the top of Lagazuoi with his
men at night under enemy sniper fire. They encamped on the Martini Ledge, and
surprised the Austrian army by firing down upon their positions, despite the best
efforts of the Austrians to dislodge them with rolling bombs and machine gun
fire.
The battle then went underground as each army made an effort to dynamite
each other off the mountain. A War of Mines and Countermines developed, which
reached an explosive climax when the Italians blew the summit of the Col di Lana
mountain, killing many Austrian troops. The snow ran red with blood, earning the
name ‘Blood Mountain’. Ben investigates the tunnels of Lagazuoi and discovers
a soldier’s dormitory, left untouched, where he finds a comic book which is 100
years old.
The Alpini regiment next take Ben in their All Terrain BV vehicles through the
heavy snow towards the Three Peaks and Mount Paterno in the Sexten Valley.
Ben introduces a famous Austrian soldier named Sepp Innerkofler, who formed
the famous “Flying Patrol”. These were men of the mountains who knew how to
survive and conducted lightning strikes upon the Italians. In a fierce battle, Innerkofler died trying to capture Mount Paterno, just as he reached the top. But as
a mark of respect, the Italian Alpini buried Innerkofler on the summit and erected
a cross and plaque in his memory.
Sepp Innerkofler
Ben travels to the Valley of Popero which is the gateway to the Sentinella Pass,
a crucial area that led to a supply route which the Italians were desperate to
control. Here the Austrians had an impregnable stronghold, but the Italians were
determined to win the pass and push on to conquer Vienna.
To do so, the Italians employed a brutal force, the Mascabroni, rough determined
men who knew the mountains and were accustomed to hardship and toil. Their
mission was to climb the mountains surrounding the Sentinella Pass and capture
the Austrian outpost.
But the Austrians were not about to give up without a fight. Sentinel posts were
stationed on the mountain peaks such as Top 11 and the Torre Vinatzer with the
commanding view of the surrounding valley. On Torre Vinatzer, the post was
defended by two Austrian brothers – Christopher and Vincenz Vinatzer – who
made the summit their home, and defended the area fiercely.
Some well-positioned snipers on top of a mountain could stop a whole army.
Christopher and Vincenz Vinatzer
Ben is helicoptered up to the summit of Torre Vinatzer by the 4th Italian Army
aviation regiment and is dropped on the outpost where the two brothers
defended their outpost 100 years ago.
Today it’s like a 100 year old living museum, left untouched, with the remains
of a pulley system and other World War 1 memorabilia. Ben is at an incredible
altitude of 10,000 feet and has a commanding view of the mountain peaks.
The two brothers lived up on the summit for nearly two years, survived an
avalanche and a long cold winter. They ran out of supplies and had to burn their
furniture as fuel to keep warm. Luckily the telephone lines were restored and
help was on its way to them with food being sent up.
Ben returns to the slopes of Top 11 where the Mascabroni climbed up to launch
a daring raid on the Austrian outposts. They tied themselves together like a
living human chain and ran down the slopes to surprise the Austrians. Dressed
all in white in elusive camouflage, they earned themselves the nickname of
“White Devils”. The Austrians had no choice but to surrender themselves to
the dreaded Mascabroni. In 1919 a peace treaty was signed between Italy and
Austria, giving Italy control of the South Tyrol and the region of Trieste and
Trentino.
Today the Dolomites of Sexten are a world heritage site, and thousands of
people come to enjoy the monuments of nature that the Italians and Austrians
fought so hard for.