History is jam-packed with stories you’ve never heard, and today’s episode brings together two such tales. Angie starts with sharing Josef Mencik – the last knight, or the Knight of Strakonice. This Czech man of noble standing starts to enter the historical narrative by buying a castle, a suit of armour, and then stands up to a Nazi tank division.
Theresa takes the rest of the episode in a wildly different direction when she shares, The Blue House Incident, or that time North Korea snuck 31 commandos into Seoul and got them within 300 meters of the president’s palace before the mission went sideways.
These stories pair nicely with:
The Wide Awakes
The SAS raid no one knew about
Transcript:
Theresa: Hi, and welcome to the Unhinged History Podcast, the podcast where two compulsive and Santa maniacs, that has to be a word. That’s the word now. It is now. We’ll read history and study the stories behind it, go off on bizarre rabbit trails, record all of it, and then come together and tell each other the stories you’ve only recently heard and have berated our spouses with. I’m host one. I’m Teresa, and that is host two.
That is Angie. And last week, I was an only. I did the black hand that started World War One and focus on a very delightful John through the beginnings of World War One.
Angie: Honestly, more people should do it because you can’t. The journey it took to get there is just unparalleled, I think.
Theresa: Well, I mean, let’s face it. We, like most of the world, are more familiar with World War Two, and it is the favorite game. But when you can pull up a really bizarre rabbit hole from World War One, I think go for it.
Angie: I think you’re right.
Theresa: Honestly, I can do bizarre rabbit hole from anything. Mm hmm. Yeah.
Angie: And that’s how the Internet was formed, guys. All right. I don’t. Okay, so I’m just going to tell you, I wrote my story like two weeks ago.
Theresa: So you don’t remember any of it? It’s going to be a surprise to both of us? Yes.
Angie: So last night, the husband was like, so do you need to like go over your notes really quick? So you know what you’re doing? And I was like, no, I think it’s going to be fun this way. Um, that said, my sources are military.com, but it’s an article by Blake Stillwell published in February of 24. Check. So the article’s called Check Night Resisted Nazi Aggression When World Abandoned His Country. Night as like a K in?
Theresa: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I’m here for that as opposed to like just the nocturnal period of one night in a country.
Angie: Yeah, no, a person. National interest.org has a blog post by Travis Pike from December of 23. Sword Hand Armored Night Stood Against Nazis. A really fun source called husheduphistory.com has a great article on it and then War History Online because can we not do a single story without bringing up World War History Online?
Theresa: It doesn’t feel right. I think it’s a split, right? If we don’t bring them up, we need to bring up the park service and or mention Syphilis.
Angie: There’s our Syphilis mentioned. Cheers. And there we are. All right.
Theresa: So did you literally say cheers and then take a quick?
Angie: I did. Wow. I just have an energy drink, so I don’t think it counts. Yeah. I mean, there you go. Live your truth.
Theresa: I’m on, you know, lots of us are leaving the bottles these days.
Angie: Well, they guessed it’s eight o’clock in the morning, Teresa.
Theresa: Not everyone follows that moniker.
Angie: That rule. Could that be today’s title? A lot of us are leaving the bottle these days.
Theresa: I mean, we’ll see what happens.
Angie: There could be another gym that pops up. Before noon rule.
Theresa: And now you were saying, go on. I’ll tell you what the story. Okay.
Angie: So I’m going to tell you the story of a man who was once described as the definition of living history. So that alone, in my opinion, should tell you that we are going to love him. His name is Genesis Menchik, very, very little is known about his child. Childhood or very little statistical data period. Like we know little about his offering.
Theresa: I thought you said just child. Very little is known about his child.
Angie: No, we know a little well that too. No. Maybe I cut out very little is known about his childhood. Like in fact, not much is known about him period before 1938.
He was an incredibly private human being. Some sources suggest that he was the oldest of four children and was born in an apartment in the local castle. This castle was in Bomerwald area, which this area of the world was what was then Czechoslovakia. It’s this super mountainous region. Today it would straddle modern day Germany and the Czech Republic.
So it’s like a little border town. What we do understand is that his family was descended from a small noble family that dates all the way back to the Holy Roman Empire. It’s believed that he was married to a woman called Emma Menchakava and that they may have had at least two children. But remember he was incredibly private with his details. So there’s not a ton right now that is 100 percent verifiable as far as like we don’t have like a birth record, that sort of thing. What we do know is that he was a historian, a counselor, an adventurer who loved rum and anchovies.
Theresa: That was an odd combination. Agreed. The sweet of the rum, the salt of the anchovies, you know,
Angie: we all, I guess we all love our chips and salsa. Maybe it’s the same thing for him. I don’t know. But in 1911 he did the thing that we absolutely dream of. He purchases a 13th century Gothic fortress.
Theresa: Yeah, I dream of having the ability to do that.
Angie: Exactly. Now this is in the town of Doberts. Hopefully I’m pronouncing all of these words right. I tried very hard to like phonetically spell them so they would make sense. Now at some point this fortress in the 1700s the local nobility added a broke style wing onto the older part of the castle and then that sort of fell into disrepair. It would eventually become a house for the poor and then a granary and then in 1838 it was turned into a school.
However, sadly in 1911 both the school and the fortress burned down and it was set to be demoed when our friend Joseph stepped in and he sets out to kind of renovate the castle, bring it back to its glory, right? Like his vision is of the high middle ages. He wants to put it back to the era it was built. Much the same that we want to fix every Victorian house he’s ever seen and put it back to Victorian, right?
Theresa: Oh yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Angie: So he does this and then he fills it with all sorts of antiquities and little oddities as all great gentlemen want to do. And while on a trip to France he purchases a full suit of armor, you know, to drive home that noble nightlife. He would appear at the markets and local fairs mounted on his trusty steed in full armor. Like this was his jam. Wow.
Theresa: I bet his wife was a very understanding woman or eclectic in her own right. I think she should have to be.
Angie: I’m here for it. Like if my husband decided that he was going to just head down to the market to pick up milk on horseback dressed as a knight or cowboy for that matter, I’d be like, good for you buddy.
Theresa: But because it’s going to be like, no honey, you need to cinch it up tighter in the back. No, no, that needs to be tighter. Tighten the breast. I can’t reach. Yeah. The cod piece. He’s a different cod piece. That one, it’s not as accentuating.
Angie: That one’s not as accentuating. Yeah. It seems like it goes without saying, but the neighbors and the other locals, they adore this man. The sources all say that he treated everyone with kindness and respect was always willing to lend a hand or gauntlet. They said he was a man of genuine character at a local tavern that he frequented.
He enjoyed socializing with everyone. And at the end of every visit, his ritual was to swallow a whole herringbone, which he then drank with a good glass of rum and shouted menacingly at things. What is a herringbone?
Theresa: Like literal bone of fish? I think so. That was the way I understood it. Okay. Yeah.
Angie: We’re unclear what he was shouting at, but the others didn’t seem to mind. The local children adored him and loved listening to his stories.
Theresa: You know, I’m going to interrupt. This sounds like the neighbor who has the Tyrannosaurus skeleton statue in his backyard year round and decorates it for every event.
Angie: You’re not wrong. I agree. Yeah. Always has. Yeah. Always has a big candy at Halloween. Yeah. So one of the reasons I love him is his home is a living museum for the kids. He was an expert on Bohemian history and was always happy to educate those who were curious. So he kind of formed it. Taking it to the hilt, his home had no modern convenience, no electricity, no plumbing, nothing. But what it lacked in modern, it had what I would call oodles and ambiance. The halls were always lit with candles and torches. And one account says that he did have a moat around his castle, but because he was keen to share it with everyone, he filled the moat with alligator sculptures.
Oh, like I have a moat, but it’s not scary. I promise there just would. There are some that say like in the modern thought that he could be compared to Don Quixote.
I don’t really think that’s the case at all. He was very aware of his time and his place, but he just loved history so much. And he kind of did the whimsical thing that most people would shun and chose to live that way. For him, chivalry wasn’t dead. And for his neighbors, it seems that like living as this man, for him, he was known as the last night or the night of Strenkonis. So he took on this role of the night of his people because to him, chivalry wasn’t dead. And we still had access to all the great stories of like Arthur and his men, right? And he felt like if he wanted that back in the world, he would have to live it back in the world. So that’s what he did.
His greatest act of chivalry would come in 1938. I know that I feel like I’ve personally been stuck in World War II for like, oh, I don’t know, months. And I’d like to offer up my sincerest apologies for this, but I’m not going to because it wouldn’t be genuine.
And I have more in the coming weeks. So here we are. That said, when the German war machine, the weathermark, begins rolling its way across the border to seize the area that his home is in, it’s okay, it’s got to be said. It’s not just a single bit of land, but rather areas along the border of Czechoslovakia and Germany that they’re filled with native German speakers. And after the Auschwitz, which was the incorporation of Austria into Hitler’s growing Nazi empire, the Germans set their eyes on these German speaking areas of Czechoslovakia, and they’re willing to wage war for it.
Now, our guy’s home is of course, sort of right in the middle of this. And at the time was part of Bohemia. And when Hitler’s like kind of eyeing the map, he demands this area. So let’s zoom out real quick and sort of place the situation on the map and in the timeline of the war. By September of 1938, Germany had begun what’s called a low intensity conflict with the Czechs, which seems strange, a low intensity conflict. Their claim is that ethnic Germans were being opposed and killed in Czechoslovakia, really rich for their part, I gotta say.
Theresa: I mean, you need a claim. It doesn’t matter if it’s true. Right.
Angie: Hitler did this with the infiltration of an army of Czechs who just happened to also be pro Nazi. Now, at the time, because remember, it’s only 1938, Germany wouldn’t invade Poland for another year. But the rest of Europe was still not too hyped about the idea of any of it since the First World War, like they’re still reeling from the after effects of the First World War, there had been far too much devastation and chaos to even consider a war again so soon, or at least that’s what the rest of Europe is thinking.
Theresa: Right. So World War One felt so improbable. Right. They called it the Great War because it was like, this was the end all, be all, we’re done. We’ve had the killing. We’re over it now.
Angie: Right. Like, we’re never gonna do this again. That’s insane. Right. Exactly. So by the end of September in 1938, France, England, Germany, and Italy, they all meet in Munich with the hope that another war can be averted. However, you’ll notice that the Czechs were not invited to this little soiree. And as such, the offer was made to quote a peace Hitler with giving up the Czech student land to Germany. So this area where Joseph Magic lives.
Theresa: So just to confirm my understanding, we’re going to hold a conference, we’re going to invite everybody but Billy, and we’re going to offer Hitler Billy’s territory because Billy, we didn’t invite Billy. So right, we’re all in agreement. Billy can die. Bye.
Angie: Yeah. That is exactly what happened. And like I said, this is the stretch of land where friend Joseph lives. So while Czechoslovakia is not invited to the party, they’re still forced to accept this offer. So things are not like people are not happy about this situation. And rightly so.
Theresa: Yeah, right. I can’t imagine a single person who would be, except for Hitler, Hitler would be obviously.
Angie: Yes, I would be happy, right. But I’m just thinking like, I can only imagine that France, Germany, or France, England, Britain, and Italy are like, excuse me, are thinking to themselves, well, if we set it to give up this little bit of land, it’s okay, we’ll be fine. Like we’ll avert a disaster, but they’re not even considering the fact that like people live in this land.
Theresa: Well, it’s the policy of appeasement. It’s the slippery slope that would,
Angie: right, which is 100% what they were doing. And, you know, I don’t think it could have worked out any different, but we didn’t know that in 1938. Yes. Right now, as we know, it wouldn’t take long for the whole of the country, and then Hungary and Poland to be absorbed into Germany by 1939. Czechoslovakia, as they knew it, is no longer. Now, you can imagine that German tanks rolling in on in the October of 38 didn’t sit well with anyone, at least not the Czechs anyway, the rest of the world doesn’t seem to notice. Not only that, but they saw these peace talks and the agreement made on their behalf in Munich as quite the betrayal. Right.
Yeah. And so very few citizens go out to meet their new overlords when they roll through. They’re not about it. But that’s not the style of our friend Mencek, right?
Like what part of this story up to now makes you think he sat quietly at home sitting tea doing needlepoint? This is a guy that rides to the market in full armor. Right.
Theresa: Right. He believes in open carry.
Angie: Yes. So as the column of tanks roars across the border and into this region called Buznia, which this is where this is where the tanks, they come up with a site. It’s the site of a lone night. The last night in full medieval armor mounted on his horse with every intent to stop these tanks in their tracks.
Theresa: Now it’s giving Tiananmen Square. Yes. That is exactly what I thought.
Angie: According to military dot com quote, the last night stood opposed to Nazi aggression against his home country. He reportedly charged the column with a sword and halberd. What’s wild is that you would have thought that the Nazis would have gunned him down or like just rode over him, but they didn’t. They actually stopped. And I think they were probably stupefied for a second. But then they do press on. That makes sense. Honestly.
Theresa: Like I feel like is there something in the air? Does anybody, I don’t smell burnt toast, but is anybody else smelling something a little strange? I’m going to smile is my face symmetrical. Or is anybody else seeing this? Am I hallucinating? Yeah, they’re all a little
Angie: like, but eventually they do press on and he is eventually forced to stand down and move aside. Whether they thought he was just crazy or they pitied him. No one really knows why or really knows. But honestly, even though no one knows why he did it, he did it because he believed it was the right thing to do because a symbol is nothing if not powerful. He stood against the Nazi ideals and tyranny and he lived his life by code of conduct, not seen since the chivalrous nights with ideals akin to that of Arthur’s Gawain and Tristan. And he would see his homeland liberated in May of 1945, but just six months later he would die. Now, what I think is really interesting because it talks about how like or history online.com says Menchik never likely believed he could actually prevent the Germans from invading Czechoslovakia. He was however successful in preventing his capital from being overrun.
Theresa: While he was regarded as a lack of electricity, prevented it from being overrun. I think they walked in, saw all the candle wax and went, we’re good. Honestly, we’ve got batteries in the Humvee. We’re going to set up camp somewhere else.
Angie: Right. So while he was regarded as a non-issue by the Germans, the fact remains that he technically, he was never defeated by them. After World War I, Czechoslovakia’s borders are reconstituted and the German-speaking inhabitants of what was once his region were expelled from the Czech lands.
Today, the region is predominantly filled with Czechs. His home has been taken over by the Restoration Association, which works to rebuild structures that might have otherwise been lost to history, much like their eccentric owners. What’s interesting to me is that sources have been deemed like on his life have been deemed unreliable and some believe that the information would reveal his ancestry, that would reveal his ancestry, is concealed in archives that protect those who were involved in World War II. And I find that last little bit super compelling because up to this point, up to 1938, the only thing that’s really known about this guy is that he fills his home with eccentricities.
Holy cow, thank you. And lives amongst his people as this noble knight. So that being said, why are the archives sealed on his family? Like, what actually happened?
We don’t know. But neither here nor there because this man had the balls to stand up to the German tank line on his horse in full armor and that’s the story of Joseph Mitchek. Could you imagine?
Theresa: You’re having an army invade and your husband puts on a motorcycle helmet and gets on a bicycle and wanders in front of a line of tanks. How would you manage this?
Angie: I would check on his life insurance policy. Just like be on the phone with him.
Theresa: Yes, just hey, no reason, but are we up to date?
Angie: Just checking. Does it cover accidental death?
Theresa: I thought so. Okay, what about murder? No, I’m not going to do it.
Angie: No, no, no, no, no, it’s actually not me this time. This is a picture of him.
Theresa: Okay, so she’s showing me a picture of a man. The armor doesn’t make him look tall. I’m just going to float that out. Yeah, it makes him look very small. I would say five might be generous. But you know, we’re talking full metal armor. He’s got a great sword that goes up to his shoulder when you look at the end of that hill. And it’s beard. He looks like a Renaissance garden. No, he does.
Angie: I wish these pictures weren’t so green, but this is someone’s horse just like going through the market. Yeah. Yeah, I absolutely, I strive to be just as men check when I am old enough to purchase my own castle. So I guess in my life, it would be my husband calling the life insurance. Hey, just real quick. Where do we stand on tanks?
Theresa: We’re we’re we’re covered against against tanks invasions, right? And entire tank line. Where do we stand on Germans? Do we? Do we have a position on this?
Angie: See, that’s that’s my delightful story. I have been waiting weeks to tell you, I just adore this man. Like, could you I keep thinking about how he was obviously so giving to the local children and then like running to each other’s doors like, Joseph standing outside his tank line. Do you want to watch?
Theresa: Get the kickball. We’ve got better things to do. Yeah. Well, I’m here for and I’m going to dramatically shift. I would say nothing less. I know. I’m going to tell you about what is called the Blue House incident or the Blue House raid.
Angie: I can’t say I’ve ever heard those words in a sentence together. Yep.
Theresa: My sources in K news, the big hunt when North Korean agents almost killed South Korea’s president. The podcast lines led by Donkeys episode 137, the show meet on mute me YouTube videos, the Korean foreigner, he’s got three of them. Korean foreigner USS Pueblo, the ship that inadvertently prevented a second Korean war. She’ll meet oh unit 124 is attempted assassination of South Korean president and she’ll meet oh a movie review and historical breakdown. Okay. So we’re obviously going to Asia for this one.
Angie: No, I did not see that coming.
Theresa: Right. I mean, surprise, surprise. Now, real quick, do you know what the Blue House is? No, I can’t say that I do. So much like we have the White House, they have the Blue House. Okay. And it’s not blue.
It is a White House with beautiful ornate blue tiles. Okay. Okay. It’s in the middle of Seoul. Okay.
And that is where the president lives. Okay. Okay. And I feel like you need that. I needed that context and it didn’t come for me too quickly. And so I will give that to you early.
Thank you. So the Korean War ends July 1953 and there’s decade of peace in quotation marks between North and South. Now obviously we have troops that are stationed on the DMZ. They’re the American troops that are stationed side by side with I’m going to call them rock troops. Rock being an acronym for Republic of Korea.
Angie: Honestly, it makes them sound so cool. Doesn’t it? I imagine them all with K-pop singers. I mean, you should.
Theresa: You should. I mean, I when I kept hearing rock, rock, rock, it took me too long to recognize that was an acronym. And so it was like they were all Dwayne Johnson for one paragraph.
And then so I kind of had too much fun mentally with this. But starting late 1966, there’s some tensions that are starting to mount on the Korean Peninsula. Now, to situate ourselves in history, we’re in the middle of the Vietnam War.
Oh, okay. So now it’s like you can see the convergence of a couple of things happening. Kim Il-sung, the leader of North Korea at this time, he’s really influenced by what is happening in Vietnam because Vietnam for him is another divided country and he’s watching them fight to unify.
North Korea is thinking, gosh, if we could continue to put pressure, then maybe, you know, like we could help North Korea or North Vietnam unify and perhaps this could this could be a great blueprint that we could follow to unify our country. Okay. So the Communist Party of Vietnam strategy was to actively support the anti-regime forces and the guerrillas that are operating in South Vietnam. Okay. So they’re stirring up dissent in the South and then they’re also kind of trying to supply stuff to North. This feels right.
Okay. Now, he’s kind of thinking Kim Il-sung, he’s thinking, gosh, we should probably start our own guerrilla movement in South Korea. And then maybe we’ll have North Korean special forces take over some remote hamlets, gradually transform them into guerrilla bases, and then we’ll just, we’ll pervert the system from within and then we’ll flood them from the South or from the North. Which it feels like a strong play. Like I could see this working.
Angie: It feels like the CIA’s involved.
Theresa: The K CIA comes up later, but they’re South Korea. Okay. Now, Pyongyang, which is a very butchered way to say the capital of North Korea, they’re also planning to disrupt the functioning South Korean government by delivering a massive blow to the major command center of the South Korean puppet regime. So that was his sentence. They want to take out President Park. And Kim Il-sung thinks of President Park, President of South Korea as this rival of his. And if he can just knock over the king at the chess board, they, he’s going to win, right?
So this is what he wants to do. So in 66, Sung establishes Unit 124. This is an elite special force unit. They begin preparations for a coming operation. Now they end up creating a model of the Blue House, which is where the South American, the South Korean president lives.
Angie: So are we talking like a one sixteenth model or like? No, no, no, full size. Okay.
Theresa: That’s, that was the visual I needed. Yeah. So full size training center. And they had to hide it so that spy planes couldn’t, couldn’t see it.
Angie: I was, that was going to be the next question. How are we, I don’t know, camouflaging,
Theresa: you know, and I don’t fully know how they were camouflaging it because there’s not a ton of sources on this, but there’s not a ton of sources on this. Right.
Okay. But either way, they, they build a replica of this. They have the, the special elite force trained through this so that they understand how to get to it. They don’t have a ton of information on what is what inside, but I think they have enough to try to get a working, working version.
Angie: Okay. Like a basic blueprint as it were. Yeah.
Theresa: So you may not know where all the bathrooms are located, but you’ll understand the rough gist. Right.
Angie: Okay. So it’s like going and looking at the mall map. Maybe. Yeah. Okay. So the group that seems by the pretzel stand.
Theresa: You’re welcome. The group consists of 31 commandos. Okay. And they cross the DMZ on January 17th, just before midnight. Okay. Now, once they find themselves on the other side of the border, they switched into South Korean uniforms to try to present themselves as a rock army unit. Sorry, the visual is killing. Go on. Now you’re thinking of Wayne Johnson.
Angie: No, I’m thinking of K-pop singers. Oh, okay.
Theresa: So they’ve got a festival makeup. Lots of body glitter. Three times this week. Okay.
Angie: Not the rock, but I do imagine the rock is their leader now. So here we are.
Theresa: Now, they’ve also been trained to mimic the South Korean accent, because there would be an accent that would develop over time. Yeah. Okay. This makes sense. And they’ve also tried to adopt many words that are unique to South Korean as well, because many Western words in South Korean, like elevator or ice cream, this is, we see this in Japanese as well, are said with a Korean accent. So they just, in Japanese, it’d be araveta ice cream. Korean is going to be a little bit different. Whereas in North Korea, they avoid Western words altogether. So elevator is something that translates like up-down machine.
Angie: Okay. Love this. I will never not call an elevator the up-down machine.
Theresa: You’re welcome. But either way, there’s little things like that where they have to remember to say the right word or it’s going to be a dead giveaway. Okay. Just like if somebody came up to you and said, hey, where’s the up-down machine? You would kind of look at them like they’ve got an eye in the middle of their forehead or be like, oh, actually, I remember this episode of Unhid’s History. So you’re looking for the elevator right this way, you infiltrator.
Angie: Yeah, I was just going I’m not thinking the elevators over here. I’m thinking, what are you doing? Yeah. What are you doing, Bob? Okay.
Theresa: Now, we have to remember this is in the middle of winter in Korea. And I did a quick Google search. I was like, what was the weather like on January 17th, 1966?
And they’re like, well, it was probably within a high of 22, a low of 11 Fahrenheit. Okay. It’s a mittens. It’s hazy and lightly snowing, probably. Okay. So we don’t have exact numbers, but it’s within the normal South Korean, North Korean winter.
Angie: Miserable is what I’m hearing. It’s snowing. Yeah. Or cold enough to be snowing. Yeah. Yeah.
Theresa: Okay. It freezing well below freezing. And that’s the high. So their bookers are frozen. And Unit 124 hoped to reach Seoul unnoticed. And they’re going through these sparsely populated forests on Mount Bakan. I said that wrong. Bakan, anyhow, I butchered it. My apologies. Now, on January 19th, around 2 p.m., they encounter a group of four woodcutters that are brothers. And they’re all in their 20s. Okay. I can’t see this going well. Now, their instructions are to kill witnesses like this on the spot.
Angie: The four woodcutting brothers sounds like some of you actually don’t want to come up against.
Theresa: But there’s 31 of them, 31 to four. Okay. You’ve got more weapons than blades. I’m glad that they have blades. Are there bears in Korea? Probably. So I’m thinking. There’s no bears in the story, though. Oh, okay. Now, these commandos, they’re a little idealistic.
Right? They were recruited because they wanted to be. Now, they’re believed that they are fighting on behalf of the South Koreans. Like, this is the common man. We are fighting for the common man. If we win and we reunify our country, then this is our brother.
Angie: Okay. But we’re also told to kill witnesses.
Theresa: So there’s a little bit of tension here. Now, they end up deliberating and they even take a vote and they decide to set the woodcutters free. I love this to them.
Okay. But they decide to lecture them first on the benefits of communism because if we win, we want you to understand why we’re doing this. We’re doing this for you. You will be grateful for this. Okay.
Got it. Now, they’re warned that they’re going to be killed along with their families if they report with Desi. But you’ve gotten the ID, the craft course in why we’re doing what we’re doing and we’re doing it for you and we’re going to kill you and your family if you step out of line. So don’t. Because we really want to. Right. This would hurt me more than it would hurt you.
That’s what I was just thinking. Okay. Because you’ll be dead. Right.
And we’ll live with this pain for the rest of our lives. Yeah. Got it. Now, after the release of the woodcutters, rush to the police stations and report a large group of armed North Koreans within the vicinity of Seoul. Okay. Because they’re probably 30 miles from Seoul at this point. Okay. Now, the woodcutters tale is met with suspicion and the forces aren’t really put on high alert.
Angie: Seems like a terrible move on their part.
Theresa: To be fair, a couple of young men rush into your backwood police station and say that there’s a group of commandos. They’ve got no mention. Like they have no evidence that this happened. It’s just, hey, this happened. And for all you know, these woodcutters are rabble rousers. I don’t know anything about these people. So you might have.
Angie: My curiosity would want to see the commandos.
Theresa: But if they can’t prove, it’s like Pixar didn’t happen. Okay. And they didn’t kill you. They lectured you on the benefits of communism. All right. Put down the bottle. Smoking out there. Yeah.
So that’s kind of what it sounds like. Right. Now, they do pass the information on.
They’re like, okay, but they do share it. Now, the concept of a large group of commandos clad in rock army uniforms, wandering near Seoul, isn’t considerably out of the question. Now, one of the woodcutters, I think it was a woodcutter, said one of the insignia on the rock uniforms was upside down, which seemed to be kind of a, this may not be one of our guys. Yeah. Yeah.
Maybe we understand which way the patch goes. It’s up. Yeah. So meanwhile, the commandos continue advancing towards Seoul. They’re sleeping during the day. They’re marching at night. They’re doing their best remain hidden. They’re marching in winter.
Angie: In Korea, where it’s Harry and all of their here, because you can’t exactly stop by Costco, pick up brashens. Right. That’s unfortunate. Now, occasionally, they encounter police and military personnel as they approach Seoul, but nobody shows much interest in what they see as a small rock military unit. Okay. So they’re blending in. They look the part.
Angie: Even though they’re insignia is upside down. Not everybody seems to have caught that.
Theresa: Honestly, a quick Google search could have told them. Right. Yeah. In 66, of course. Now, it’s January 21st. So they’ve been in the country five days. Okay. It’s 950 PM. Unit 124 is roughly 300 meters from the back entrance of the Blue House, which is their whole goal. They’re within spitting distance of the goal.
Right. Now, South Korean soldiers are stopped at a small police post at the last moment. Now, there’s two policemen at this checkpoint, and they’re kind of demand not kind of they’re demanding to see the documents that they would let them in.
Give me the right paperwork. Now, North Koreans insist that their counterintelligence command on the way back from training. And the police are like, you seem to talk a little weird.
Angie: Strange. We don’t have any up-down machines. Where’s your ice cream? Yeah. Yeah, we don’t have frozen sweet treats. What sweet treats? Now, the policemen see that there’s some some of the soldiers clearly have hidden weapons on them that they’re not supposed to have. And they begin to suspect that this might be the reported infiltrators from the North.
And so then our Woodcutter friends told us about four days ago. Right. Yeah. There’s there was a memo that came through. This is an email. Yeah. Now, they start an argument with them, and they’re hoping to use this argument to buy some time.
Now, always works. I think it was in the podcast I listened to. They said something brilliant.
And the Lions led by Donkeys podcast, which the podcast is ran by veterans. They note that the rock president came to power using a military coup. So he didn’t want military near him.
He wanted his own police force. Reasonable. Because you ain’t going to take me out the same way I came to power. Okay.
So these uniform men at 10 o’clock at night are in the wrong spot. Oh, that’s unfortunate. Now, quote, he was sick.
Is that wrong? He is the head of the Chungro police station. And he’s passing the post in his car and he came over to see what this commotion is about. Because he can see that there is this group of 31 commandos and two police officers having an argument.
Angie: Okay. The visual is brilliant. I just need you to know it gets better. Oh, thank God. I’m so excited because the rock is rocking right now. Yep. With his K-pop friends behind them.
Theresa: They’re aware of the presence of North Koreans. And he makes it clear that they’re not going to be allowed through without the proper paperwork. You need to get the right stuff in order.
We’re not letting you through 10 o’clock at night or go to bed. Yeah. One of the commandos pulled out a gun and shot Khlo, mortally wounding him. Oh, no. So this starts a firefight. Now, the North Koreans are determined to pass through. Like they are so 300 meters. They can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
But it starts to appear that this is doomed. Because again, there was like three cops versus 31. This seemed and now 31 versus two.
So this seemed like the odds were in their favor. But then the reinforcements start to arrive. Oh, dear. Now imagine you have reinforcements. So you have people showing up in military uniforms.
Angie: South Korean military uniforms. The insignia is on right.
Theresa: Okay. You’re not going to be looking at insignia when you’re holding a semi-automatic rifle. Yeah, I guess that’s true. So the commandos notice a few buses that start to approach. And with the like, because this is just a fully operational city. So one of them takes a grenade and throws it because he thinks that this bus is full of reinforcements.
Angie: Oh, it’s not. It’s full of normal people, isn’t it? It is.
Theresa: And so it’s a regular city bus. And so this kills two passengers, wounds the driver, and the conductor. But in this like crazy, I don’t know who’s who because everyone’s wearing the same uniform. And we’ve all got semi-automatic weapons. You’re just blindly spraying and praying. It is the wider man meme.
Angie: Everybody, yeah, everybody pointing at everybody and we’re all with the same. Yeah. Got it.
Theresa: Now unit 124, they begin this hasty retreat and they’re spraying ammunition. And it’s just hitting everybody willy-nilly. Now, Rock Force has been the next few days hunting down the dispersed commandos on their way back towards the DMV because they didn’t get it.
So they’re trying to get back home. Right. This seems reasonable. Yeah.
Nearly all of them fought to the death and were taken out one by one. Wow. Okay.
Because ideology. I mean, you’re going to go out either way. Like you don’t assume that they’re going to let you live. So you’re right. Yeah, you’re right on your terms.
Yeah. So of the 31 original members, 27 are killed near the initial confrontation or in the ensuing pursuit. One is taken prisoner before taking his own life, as North Korean forces usually do. Because you and I both know we study at Korea. No, we don’t. But apparently this was peruse.
Angie: I mean, that actually checks when you think about this globally. Yeah. How many? Yeah. Okay.
Theresa: One commando is captured alive. Kim Shin-Jo. He’s 26 years old and was tasked with killing everybody on the ground floor of the Blue House. Oh, okay. Like they were going to wipe out the government.
Angie: I feel like they could have done this an easier way.
Theresa: I feel like they came really close to doing it regardless.
Angie: No, I think you’re right. Yeah. I’m not arguing. I just feel like if you’re, if the goal is to remove everybody, why send in, why send in a hand team when you can, I don’t know, send in a plane? But if you cut the head off the
Theresa: government, now you have more ability to send in the plane. Yeah, I guess that’s true. This was a special strike. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Anyhow, he ends up spending some time in prison. He serves his time. He gets out. He becomes a Christian pastor.
Angie: Wild. I did not see that being a segue.
Theresa: Okay. And he resides in Seoul under a different name. He changes his name when he gets out, becomes a pastor.
Angie: Literally had to come to Jesus moment. Yeah.
Theresa: And just does his bits, right? There’s another survivor, Park Jae-young. He manages to get back home, crosses the DMZ back into North Korea and receives a Hero’s Welcome. He failed, but he made it home.
Okay. So, I mean, I’m imagining that’s anywhere from 30 to 35 miles, depending upon, you know, what area he does it in the dark at night, freezing cold and then goes back home. Like, right, you know, I run six miles and act like I deserve a Hero’s Welcome.
Angie: I don’t run any miles and I act like I deserve a Hero’s Welcome.
Theresa: But anyhow, so yeah. Yeah. Like, so this guy like fears badass. He becomes eventually because of four star general in North Korea and visits Seoul twice in the early 2000s in this capacity. Okay. So, it goes back to the scene of the crime. Twice. Yeah.
Bullsie. Now, the fate of the last one of the member of this enclave, he’s unknown. It’s rumored that he managed to make it back to the North and serve in the military. He doesn’t reach the same level of career success as Puck. But I mean, I’m still just like, honestly, didn’t see one getting back home, let alone two.
Angie: Honestly, didn’t see one becoming a pastor, let alone any of them getting back home. So, that was a surprise. Right.
Theresa: So, yeah, North Korea officially denies any and all responsibility of this. Okay. Which, yeah, I’d part for the course. According to the propaganda that they give out both domestic and overseas, they’re like, well, the operation was organized by a by daring local resistance forces wasn’t us, but we support their efforts because that’s badass.
Angie: It’s daring. Like, yeah, good for you.
Theresa: Now, behind closed doors. Yeah, you know, they’re kind of over it. Like, so they end up talking to Lee Hu, Hu Rock, who’s the head of the K CIA, which is the Korean Central Intelligence.
Okay. So, and Kim Il-sung expresses his regret for the incident. It’s just an incident. Okay.
You know, like, I might sneeze and pee my pants and call it an incident. He sends 31 special forces. Yeah. To go and it’s just an incident. So, apparently, once you hit a certain level, the word incident means wildly different things. Yeah, it does.
Now, he claims rather implausibly that the attack was the responsibility of some unspecified extreme leftists. Okay. Now, this regret is ultimately timely because they’re trying to improve relations with Seoul. Oh, okay. And they’re like, you know, we were caught.
Boy, you know what? We’re not not our bad specifically, but we’re sorry you feel that way. It’s really unfortunate. I’m sorry. We’re trying to improve our relationships with you. Like, just when you come to tea, it’s like when siblings fight.
Angie: Don’t tell mom. Yeah, I’m sorry you feel like that. Oh my God, are you okay? Quit crying. Quit crying. Mom is here. It will definitely be my fault this time.
Theresa: But that is the Blue House incident.
Angie: I don’t know what to make of that. I was going to say that was delightful. But I feel like for the people on the bus, it wasn’t. No. Wild. I’ll go with wild.
Theresa: That was wild. That story was suggested by listener Ryan, who said that it was a delightful romp and it will segue nicely into next week’s story. Love that. Which was not suggested by him, but damn well should have been because they’re buddies. There is a part two and it is one of those like, I’m sorry. What?
Angie: Could you say that again real quick? I just didn’t catch it. Oh, that was fun. Okay. I gotta tell you, I’m a big fan of Commando stories, period. Like, yeah, big fan. Yeah. Thank you for that.
Theresa: My absolute pleasure. And if you’re thinking, what in the hell are they going to tell us next week? We don’t know. Actually, I think we both know what we’re going to do next week, even though we haven’t told the other one. But raise review, subscribe, send this to your favorite would be a great Commando. And on that, love it. Goodbye.
Theresa: Bye.
Unhinged History 
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