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History is strange and weird. Today’s mash-up of stories proves it.

Theresa picks up where she left off last week. (Last week she shared about that time North Korea sent 31 commandos into South Korea to take out their president.) This week, South Korea responds by forming their own squad, only spoiler alert: things go fantastically awry.

Angie collects her bearings before sharing the early years of her favorite SAS member, “Paddy” Blair Mane. Join us as she tells about him hunting South African springbok in formal wear and more.

These stories pair well with:
The Blue House Raid
The SAS Raid You Never Heard Of

Transcript:

Theresa: Hi, and welcome to the Unhinged History Podcast, the podcast where two middle-aged moms do their utmost to fill the void that is their personal lives by binging history stories and then coming together and telling each other the story of only recently learned. I’m host one, I’m Teresa, and that is host two. I’m Angie. And I couldn’t resist, but it’s not punching up or punching down, but punching across. 

Angie: You know, punching is punching, I guess. Really? 

Theresa: I woke up and chose violence. You chose link.double. Okay, so that came from, I sent Angie the link for us to meet virtually so that we could record this thing. And normally the subject line is link, and the only part of the message is the URL she needs to click. Today the subject line was link, bracket, not Zelda. Bracket. 

Angie: Anyway, it’s going to be a great week. That’s all we’re saying. Yeah. And if you don’t know who link or Zelda are, were you alive in the 90s? 

Theresa: Or 80s because I mean that gold cartridge came out in the 80s. 

Angie: Yeah, like, yeah, I played at least 89, at least. But I’m saying that’s only four then. 

Theresa: I mean, we got, we were the first people we knew to get a Nintendo system, but we lived in Japan. So we got it in a language we couldn’t read. That’s awesome. 

Angie: That’s super awesome. Nothing will teach you Japanese faster than trying to figure out how to play your favorite video game. 

Theresa: Yeah, no, pretty much. And we didn’t even know it was going to be our favorite. We figured that out quick though. I’m sure. But you know, imagine me as a tiny toddler realizing for Doug, I could just walk up, touch the screen and get all of the ducks. I was, I thought I was the best at this game. 

Angie: I mean, were you not? 

Theresa: The high score says otherwise. The high score proves my point, you know, exactly. You know, my lazy father who couldn’t be bothered to get up off the couch did not get a score as high as mine. Ergo, I clearly went. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. So I feel like I just kind of want to start. Do you mind? 

Yeah, it’s my turn. All right, my sources. MK News, The Big Hunt, When North Korean, it’s basically all of the same sources from last week. But I’ll repeat them in case you didn’t, you know, you didn’t tune into that. The Big Hunt, When North Korean agents almost get killed. 

Nope. In K News, The Big Hunt, When North Korean agents almost killed South Korean’s president, podcast The Lions led by Donkeys, episode 137, The Shilmeato Mutiny, YouTube videos, The Korean Foreigner, there’s three of them. The USS Pueblo, the ship that inadvertently prevented the Second Korean War, Shilmeato, Unit 124’s attempted assassination of South Korean president, and Shilmeato, a movie review and historical breakdown. Okay, so last week in episode 134, I shared the bonkers story of how North Korea’s Unit 124 committed the Blue House rape, or also Blue House incident if you’re looking at South Korean history and how they work and how to recap. It’s a decade after the Korean War, there’d been a relative peace, peace and quotation marks as they’re, you know, fairly hostile, but they’re not actively in warfare between, or with America’s troops standing next to South Korea on the DMZ, holding that line. And they’re just making sure the two countries stay separated. They don’t want to miss. Find their own business. 

Yeah. And then one night in the middle of a below freezing winter night, a group of 31 heavily trained commandos, like trained for three years, no, I think it was two years, I think it was two years, sneak out of South Korea. We don’t know if it was tunnels, if they popped over the fence, that’s unclear, but either way, on foot, these 31 elite soldiers make it over 30 miles to get to Seoul. And then in Seoul, they get uncomfortably close to the president’s red, residence at the Blue House. 

And that’s where their plan goes disastrously sideways. Of the 31 original members, 27 are killed in the initial confrontation, or at least in the ensuing pursuit. One person has taken prisoner before taking his own life. And this is part and parcel for what North Korean forces usually do. In addition, 31 South Korean soldiers and policemen, five civilians are killed, and over 50 are wounded. 

Angie: That’s an incident. That’s a body count. Yeah. 

Theresa: Yeah. And they’re saying incident, like the time I say I overloaded the dishwasher, or the time I figured out that insert whatever hijinks I’ve got here. I don’t know which particular piece of lore to pull from. 

Angie: I mean, I think any given day of the week that Teresa gets out of bed could be an incident. And I say that with all the love in my heart, and I’m proud to know you. 

Theresa: You say that and you’ve never interfaced with my karate instructors. 

Angie: I feel like I’m right. 

Theresa: I feel like you guys have similar narratives for me. Well, then maybe we just know what we’re all of that had to go up into the background so that I could get to today. And today, I’m going to tell you about how South Korea responded. Okay, let’s go. All right. So all of that happened. South Korea is deep in its fields over this situation. Initially, South Korea’s Intelligence Agency planned to recruit prisoners on death row because they want to have their own armed response. 

Angie: Great. So it’s a side squad. 

Theresa: Exactly, right? Okay. Now, I will say the 2006 Defense Ministry has some report notes about the event, how they wanted to go to these prisons to recruit civilians and give them a mission to assault Kim Il-sung’s residence. But we have a problem because the conditions in prison are too rough on the inmates and they’re not sturdy enough to get chosen for this mission. 

Angie: Like we could use a few more pounds of food? Yeah. 

Theresa: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. They may have not the best conditions beyond food. Like maybe they are getting a little roughed up. Yeah. Okay. 

Angie: We’re probably not staying at the Ritz. 

Theresa: Yeah. Everything about this says, what did you expect? A five star Yelp review? Kick rocks. Yeah. Okay. Got it. Okay. And so they’re like, huh, maybe we can’t pull from the absolute dregs. So there is a man named Yang So and he’s a former unit 684 and 684 is what they’re recruiting for the recruiting for unit 684. That’s where they’re going to try to compile their suit. That’s what they’re going to name their suicide squad. 

Okay. And Kim Dong So told CNN that members were largely recruited based on their physical appearance. So they go to the prison, they realize, huh, this guy ain’t going to work out so well for us. So we’re going to need to take it to the streets and pick up people who were just arrested for a drunken brawl or just like grab the toughest looking dude. 

Yang goes on to say these people are either a shoe sign boy, a newspaper boy, a cinema worker or a bouncer. Okay. So basically, they don’t want to deal with using their elite soldiers, nor do they want to deal with the implications of getting caught using soldiers. But just kind of eyeballing the toughest looking bloke on the street seems to make a lot of sense here. 

Angie: I well, I mean So I just I love this North Korea says we’re going to take the biggest bad asses, ask for a group of volunteers from said bad asses, and then spend a couple of years training them. 

Angie: It’s South Korea’s responses. You there boy. Come here. 

Theresa: Hey, you didn’t skip leg day. 

Angie: Look at those cats. Come on over here. Your neck is thick. 

Theresa: Yeah. You’ve got no differentiation between head and shoulders. That is just one solid mass. Come on over here. Great. Can you open this jar? Fantastic. I’ve got a job. 

Angie: God. Okay, can I just tell you how I know the rest of the story ends. They succeed. 

Theresa: Okay, that’s that’s a good a good guess. I am I’m excited for that guess. So basically, they don’t want to deal with using their elite soldiers, nor do they want to deal with the implications of getting caught. Right now, we have Yang 21 years old. He’s a volunteer in the Air Force when he’s deployed to the island of Shilmeido off the western coast of South Korea in 1970. Yang says he’s charged with teaching the recruits hand to hand fighting. 

Okay. Now he’s 21. He’s brand. He doesn’t know the mission. The recruits don’t know the mission. 

Nobody really knows necessarily what’s going to happen here. Right? Right. He says, I taught the recruits the skill they needed to survive. And the most important lesson was to live. You must kill. 

Okay. Now on the island, both recruits and trainers are forbidden from communicating with the outside world. And the training is relentless and brutal. 

Now, okay, when you think about this is a recruit, you’re not communicating with your family. You simply disappear. You get into a drunken fight in the night. You’re picked up by these people trying to put together a hit squad and you just evaporate. 

Angie: Yeah. Okay. I’d have questions. 

Theresa: Now, okay, I need to back up a little bit because what ends up happening is these it could be 30 number. There’s a lot that’s going to be fuzzy about what I’m going to say because there’s a lot of missing reports. 

Okay. Now, what we have is 30 ish men, at least 31 because it was 31 men who came into South Korea and South Korea wanted to have a bit of parity. So they wanted to have either a total of 31 graduate from this training or start with 31. So there’s an ambiguous number here. But we have these people. They’re taken. They’re put on this island. 

Angie: Okay. And bouncers, club guys, the milk man. Yep. Yep. 

Theresa: Okay. Now, what we do know is from 1968 to 1971, seven of the unit’s 31 members lost their lives, 31 being an ambiguous number. I’ve heard reports being like firm 31. Other reports being like, eh, could be 37. Yeah. 

Like, they might have expected a washout. Yeah. Now, according to the Defense Ministry, two men are executed for desertion. I’ll spill it. I’ll speak into that one in a little bit. Another man is threatened or is executed for threatening a trainer. And then three others are executed or died after an incident in which they escaped the island and raped a local woman. They come back, their crimes come to light and they’re just taken out. They’re like, no, we’re not dealing with this. 

Absolutely not cutting the cancer out. Yeah. Okay. 

Now, okay. There’s also reports at the beginning of the training with the recruiters who are soldiers. They’re just kind of like the recruits are joking around and the soldiers training them are just so frustrated. These guys are taking orders because they’re not soldiers that they, one trainer just shoots two of them in the chest. And suddenly it’s no longer fun and games and everybody else has no problem following orders the first time they’re given. 

Weird how that works. Now, I will say there is a movie about this incident called Shilmeetah, which I cannot get my hands on. It doesn’t stream in the U.S. I can’t even figure out a way to get my hands on a pirate copy without downloading the latest version of Lime Wire. 

Angie: I didn’t even know you could still get Lime Wire. 

Theresa: I’m, it’s a hypothesis at my point. I knew I wasn’t going to go this hard to go get it. Right. 

Angie: Yeah. Well, you can’t figure out how to stream it. Do we really need it? 

Theresa: I mean, I feel like I do. But the movie appears to be a huge source of, what? 

Angie: I’m so sorry. You’re right because there’s, there’s a book that I want in audio format that is not released in the U.S. yet and I am prepared to go to great lengths to get it. So you’re right. I’m sorry. 

Theresa: You know what? 

Theresa: I’m here for this. I’m here for being called that I’m right. I mean, thank you. I forgot we were talking about, but I agree to your terms. But what we do know about the movie is like, so the movie has a couple of moments where I should say when the movie came out in like the early 2000s in Korea, it opened up that this event happened to most of South Korea because nobody knew that this happened. Oh, okay. And so then they’re like, oh my gosh. 

So there’s a couple of like moments that are very close to the reality of what we do know and others that are far departures. So in the movie, they’re in a boat, they’re going to the island, the recruits are laughing and joking, and one of the guards shoots at the recruits feet missing in the bottom of the boat, which is probably the worst time to start shooting at feet when you’re in a boat. 

Angie: Typically, I would, I would really feel strongly against doing that. 

Theresa: Yeah, like, you know, let’s not end everybody’s life because two people were telling your mama jokes. Honestly, don’t go for the feet. Right. So to hear that it was worse that they just like center massed these two humans and then just said, okay, are we done joking? Okay. 

Now this, so we have all of this going on. If you’ve seen the movie, fantastic. If you can get me a bootleg version on hinge.historypod .gmail.com. 

Please and thank you. Yeah. Now, I will say that throughout the the recruits and that being on this island for three years. 

Okay. Now the members of 684 were never deployed to North Korea. And on top of the execution, fatalities and isolation, there’s basic promises made by North or South Korea that are that are broken, right? There’s a commission that comes out with like a lot of the stuff that we we get and saw the truth commission, the 2006 Truth Commission. And it concluded that after the first three months on Shimido, commanders stopped paying the trainee salary and switched them to a poor quality food. That seems counter. 

Angie: Yeah. I mean, you literally stopped looking in the prison because you needed healthy people. 

Theresa: They’re also getting contaminated water. Oh, of course they are. And so it’s like, meanwhile, the North Korean dudes who came through, they were getting fed very well because they needed to have, first off, grueling training. Second rate. If you’re going to be subjected to that for this volunteer mission, you need to have some incentives and perhaps a decent meal is going to be what keeps you going. 

Angie: I mean, that’s how I operate. All right. 

Theresa: So after a year and a half of starting this training, two things start happening. One, relations with North Korea start getting friendlier and having a kill squad for their leader isn’t really something you want to own up to. I mean, who among us? 

I mean, you have your mortal enemy come over and they see your kill room and they kind of go, is this how you’re living? I thought better of you. Yeah. And then we have another thing that happens in South Korea and that is the leader of the KCIA gets fired and replaced. 

Okay. The KCIA was the guy who put together this whole, this whole system. This whole, right. Okay. Now the new guy, he doesn’t want to want to run a kill mission for a couple of reasons. 

Let’s assume the friendly nature between the two countries isn’t even on the table. If he runs this kill mission and it works, he doesn’t get credit for it because it wasn’t his idea. 

Angie: Oh, right. And technically we shouldn’t even be speaking about it anyway. Exactly. 

Theresa: Now also, if it doesn’t work out, he catches all the blame because it happened under his watch. Right. So he’s like, right, what do I do with this group of, I mean, illegitimate trainees? Like, so he starts putting them on bogus missions. Like, maybe, maybe we’ll get them to bomb water towers if we send them into North Korea, so they flood the cities. 

Angie: Even though we’re getting to friendly 

Theresa: terms, we’re getting to friendly terms, but it’s just like those initial steps with talking with a nemesis, an ex, a whomever, an angry spouse, where you’re not sure if it’s going to work out yet. They’ve been staying apart, but you know, it’s like, I don’t know yet, but this isn’t working for me kind of deal. So you want to kind of keep that, that kill squad in your back pocket when you’re talking to the person you’re angry at. 

Angie: Yeah, we all have one, you know. Yeah, I mean, who am I? 

Theresa: And then, as all this is happening in the background, something snaps. It’s been three years and on the morning of August 23rd, 1971, the remaining 24 assassins turned on their commanders. Oh, you didn’t see that line coming. 

Angie: Listen, they were not getting the right food. I would be pissy, too. 

Theresa: They used their training to raid the armory and turned on the guards, shooting, stabbing, and beating them to death. Oh, Yang says he was preparing to go to the mainland that morning for a monthly supply run when he heard gunfire. 

Okay. At first, I thought North Korean special forces are here to take over the island, Yang says. And then a recruit shot him in the neck and the bullet entered from the back next to the spine and passed through the left side of his neck. 

Now, at the time of the recording of that, he was 68 years old, and Yang still had the pale pink scars on his neck to mark the bullet’s entry and exit was. 

Angie: That was just a sheer stroke of luck. Yeah, like all about that. Like any one direction, even a millimeter off would have been toast. 

Theresa: Like his guarding agent was just like push. 

Angie: Please turn your head. 

Theresa: Yeah. Just whistle over here and look just slightly to the left. There we go. Thank you. Now, when he wakes up, he’s bleeding from his neck and everywhere the trainers are being shot and killed by recruits or the trainers are running away or being shot again by recruits who are making sure they’re dead. Double time. 

They got to be dead dead. Yep. Yep. So it’s chaos. 

It’s absolute anarchy. Okay. Yang said he dragged himself down to a dark oyster encrusted rock that lined the beach bleeding profusely and he hid under the stones and prayed to God that his former students wouldn’t find him. 

Angie: If you like again, if you would have offered him a nice sandwich to begin with, we wouldn’t be here. 

Theresa: Right. You know, low blood sugar does a bunch of things being hangry for three years and brutalized by your instructors. Yeah. Now, they never find him. And the members of unit 684 killed 18 of the trainers on the island, but they’re not finished yet. Okay. Now they, they don’t fully know why they were put on this island for this training. Nobody knows. This is all top secret. 

Angie: We plugged you off the street. We said we have a project for you. Go start doing pushups. Pretty much. Okay. 

Theresa: Okay. So the assassins make their way to the mainland and then they hijack the bus to Seoul. Okay. Now, it’s here that they start clashing with soldiers and police. Now, mind you, these guys are in Air Force uniforms. And they’re South Koreans. They’re South Koreans in South Korean uniforms. 

Angie: Going to the South Korean residential home. Yeah. Okay. Got it. I’m just making sure I understand the full picture here. 

Theresa: So this, this looks wildly similar to North Korea’s thing, except for these guys don’t have accents and they know how to say the word elevator. 

Angie: The up-down machine. The up-down machine. 

Theresa: Now, as they’re going to Seoul, dozens of security forces and civilians are killed and wounded. Why? Because these guys are armed to the teeth. They’re blasting machine guns out the doors and windows and lobbing grenades. Hey. You’ve got a hell of a face. 

Angie: I just, I’m thinking, I’m thinking how the North Koreans like beautifully trained these soldiers to do this job and how sideways their incident went. And these guys are just this rag tag like you, you pulled me off the street and gave me half a peanut butter and jelly. Let’s call it good. Like, and they already cause so much more destruction. 

Theresa: Now you have a bucket of hand grenades. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Now the battle ends with an explosion on the bus that killed 20 of the mutineers. Oh, now because, okay, basically the bus gets ground to a halt because everyone’s like, holy crap, it’s happening again. North Korea’s invading. Like they, they have, they are primed and ready for this. And unit 684, they’re like, well, we’re not going to make it. And so they’re like, well, I mean, we’ve got these hand grenades, not, not enough because they’ve thrown all of them out the window. So they pull the pen and hold onto it and off themselves. And four of them didn’t cuddle up close enough. So four survived this blast because they had tossed so many out the window they didn’t have enough to go around. 

Of course. Now, none of the dead’s family were notified about their death. Wow. And it’s unlikely that they had any idea what happened to their loved ones when they had disappeared three years prior. Wow. It’s, it’s very likely that they had no idea that their family was involved with the military at all, because you’re grabbing just some disgruntled youth. Right. Yeah. 

Angie: Off the streets of a nightclub. 

Theresa: The four who survived are tried in secret. And they’re all found guilty and executed March 10th, 1972. After the execution, the bodies were handed over to the families. And that’s that’s in the Defense Ministry report from 2006. Okay. 

So they scrape up all of the bits and dump them into the sea and forget about it. Wow. Now that’s unfortunate. The one thing that came out about this was the KCA director. He ends up actually offing the president of South Korea himself. Oh. And he does it by shooting him in the face a lot. 

Angie: Well, you know, when you got to get a job done. 

Theresa: And then he himself gets, gets shot. And this proves to me that South Koreans are either the most sarcastic or the best at downplaying things because the incident where the KCA director off the president is referred to as the 1026 incident. Just a date. Yeah, just a date. Just an incident. Yeah. 

Angie: That’s like, that’s like the equivalent of that time I ran out of gas. That’s an incident. 

Theresa: Not the time there was a presidential assassination. 

Angie: Yeah. I feel like we worded that a little light, you know. 

Theresa: Yeah. Yeah. So I can’t figure if it’s humor or underplay or a little of both. Maybe both. But okay. So a lot of what we do know is wrapped up in that movie. 

She’ll need, which did hit South Korea and was like, Oh my gosh. And we do know there are variations from that retelling because the government destroyed so much of the reports and so much of the paperwork. But in 2006, they had this truth commission that did a bunch of the reports. So the government goes to the families involved and shares. Now the name of the recruits involved in the shell meet a mutiny, which is what it’s called now, that’s not public knowledge, but at least the families now. And then in 2010, the South Korean government admitted that it lied. It violated the recruits basic human rights, and it paid out over $300 million to the survivor’s family. Wow. 

Angie: Okay. Imagine if we would have treated them right the first time. Amen. Yeah. That’s wild. Wow. They got much closer. 

Theresa: Well, okay. The North Koreans got within 100 meters. Oh, that’s true. Yeah. Okay. I don’t, there’s nothing about this incident that I found that I’ve read that says, and they were right within the president’s bedchamber when the bus blew up. 

Theresa: Like this, you know what I mean? 

Theresa: Like, yeah, but it was just like, they were at the front gate. They were louder. They’re hard to miss. But it was just like, I’m sorry. Plus, and they had, what? 

Angie: And you, oh, yeah. Wow. Thank you for that. 

Theresa: So that is, that is, that is the full encapsulation of the Blue House incident into the Shulmida Mutiny. 

Angie: Nope, it is just called the Blue House incident. 

Theresa: Well, the Blue House incident technically ends when the North Koreans either fully escape or unalive. Yeah. I guess that’s true. But like the part two is like South Korea going, now what are we going to do about it? Oh, I got an idea. We’re going to build a suicide squad. 

Angie: Yeah. It, it’s wild to me. Like, okay. I think I’ve, I think I’ve asked which direction we’re, playing multiple times now, but it’s wild to me that North Korea has this idea. And so they highly train these individuals who come then sneak in to South Korea and South Korea’s response is to marginally highly train some individuals who on their own accord decide to take a bus and go in, like I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m, 

Theresa: I mean, I have a feeling the South Koreans, Unit 684, I think they were disgruntled. They hadn’t had any interaction with anybody outside of the other recruits and their trainers. 

They’ve been starved and beaten into lethal shape. Yeah. And eventually they’re like, you know what we’re going to do? We’re just going to go talk to the president. 

Yeah, we can go have a conversation. And they’ve lacked the calm conversation, forming skills for the last three years. Nobody’s gentle parented them for three years. And now they’ve got to go figure it out on their own. 

Angie: Which is why we have a bucket of grenades and not enough to go around. 

Theresa: Well, originally they had enough to go around, but when you throw too many out the window, you don’t have a lot of extra. 

Angie: Literally throw it out the window. Yeah. Oh, my word. But that’s my story. I have a story for you. And I am going to be honest and tell you that I have known this story was coming since episode 117. Wow. Yeah. The SAS raid no one knew about. Okay. Okay. 

Theresa: So did you get your hands on? Was it I choose the storm? No. Wasn’t that the book? 

Angie: There’s many books. Oh, okay. I, okay. How do I start this? In learning about the train robbery at the CCHI, I learned about like adjacent to major Kerry Ewells or Ellis. I learned about another figure in the SAS. And my poor husband has never been more info dumped on in his life. Since I told that first story, I have been learning about this individual I have been stewing on and gatekeeping in the most jealous way, but also been telling you stories that lead up to it. That said, I thought it would be really fun to tell you the story of the SAS, but in the frame of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Blair Patty Main, who is officially my hero of heroes. I know that there’s a lot of characters we’ve done that I said like, oh my God, I love that guy. 

He’s my hero. But this one tops them all in my book. Even Jack Churchill. So this is your love of love. Pretty much like when, when I tell you the amount of times I have turned a conversation to Patty Main and Ian has literally just rolled his eyes. It’s like, oh, I bet you can make that go back to Patty Main. 

Theresa: I love all of this for me. And I’m actually kind of hurt that you’ve kept it from me. 

Angie: I have, dude, the amount of stories that I have shared leading up to this, like I’ve, I didn’t want to do him while I was still in school because I wanted to be able to like commit time to reading the books that have been written about the SAS and that had been written specifically about him without having like the glute, like the cloud of school work over me, right? But in the meantime, I’ve been picking up stories here and there that I’m like, oh my gosh, that directly relates to this outcome that I’m like so curious about. So I’ve dropped you Operation Underworld and a handful of them. 

And as I go through this, you will see where, where those other stories show up. So all that to say, did you know, I just have to ask this is the total aside, but did you know that there’s a difference between lieutenant and lieutenant? 

Theresa: No, I thought it was accent, like aluminum, aluminum. 

Angie: So did I. So they’re the same rank. The reason that the, you, this is so stupid to me. The reason that the US has lieutenants instead of left tenants and PS, they’re spelled the same. 

Theresa: It’s just the way you pronounce it. Okay. So you’re proving my point so far, but carry on. 

Angie: It is accent based, but there’s a reason for it. When the US was fighting the Revolutionary War, instead of modeling our military after the British military, because of that too, we’re fighting against, we modeled our military after the French military. 

They have lieutenants, not left tenants. The English added the F. Right. That feels like the very Frenchiest thing to do. Yeah. So let’s let that stew in your brain. Okay. 

For a while. All right. Yeah. Thanks. 

I hate it. You’re welcome. So I have a ton of sources. However, today, um, today’s portion, this is going to be a series of stories. Today’s portion, the bulk of it comes from a book called Pity Main by Hamish Ross. It features a wonderful forward by Mike Sadler, who was the like wizard of a navigator for the FAS. Um, and Hamish Ross, his book is like a, not an autobiography, oh my God, a biography of Pity Main’s life. 

And it’s phenomenal. And then there are three books by Damien Lewis, Brothers in Arms, Church Hill Special Forces, during World War II’s darkest hour. SAS Forged in Hell and SAS Dagger’s Drawn. 

Theresa: I’m excited by this because I’ve almost bought a couple of those books and went, I’ll come back for you. 

Angie: They are so good. So good. They are, um, what I really appreciated about him is you get a real sense of what’s actually happening on the ground. Like he does a great, very detailed job of the battles themselves that they fought. But more than that, he includes so much like letters home and journal entries from the actual SAS and from the members that were there on the ground that you really get to see the people. And it’s not just this like over-exaggerated storytelling, right? 

Like this is the muck and the grime in the quiet moments of reflection. And you get to kind of see that all throughout the books. And I’ve just, I cannot speak more, more highly of them. They’re so good. So that’s, that’s the bulk of my, my sources. 

And then there is, um, the National Rugby, um, historical website that I had to use. For today’s, uh, bit. So without further ado, on January 11th, 1915, in, I’m going to pronounce this wrong, even though I said it right so many times, Newton Ards. Oh, I said it right. 

Newton Ards County down Ireland, a man who would later be akin to having a bit of unexploded ordinance to him would be born. Yep. I’m sorry. Repeat that. He is considered to have a bit of unexploded ordinance. And you said he’s born. He was born on January 15th, later in life. 

Theresa: Born with the ordinance? 

Angie: No, later in life, he would be described as being a bit of unexploded ordinance. 

Theresa: Oh, he, that is his personality. Yes. Okay. Thank you because I was so lost and confused. I was like, I apologize. 

Angie: Was I gave you a birth and then it’s a firecracker. 

Theresa: What the heck? No, I gave you birth and then I gave you a character trait right off the bat. He was the second youngest of seven siblings. His parents were William and Margaret Main. Mom was the daughter of a wealthy linen merchant and his father was a successful businessman as well. So they grow up, you know, well, they’re not, they’re doing okay. 

Yeah, they’re, they’re, they’re doing just fine. Um, I do want to stop right here though until you really, two really fun facts about his family real quick. Firstly, he’s named after his mother’s cousin who just before he had been born was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for quote, rescuing wounded comrades without regard for his own safety while coming under heavy and sustained fire because Blair was born right in the thick of World War one. 

Oh, right. And those words would ring so true for him later being named after his cousin. Additionally, his family could trace their lineage several generations back to the area around his birthplace. Not only that, but his great grandmother was Francis O’Neill of the very ancient clan O’Neill who can follow their lineage to Irish roots of at least 700 years. 

And just as impressive as their European roots all the way back to 360 AD. Oh, okay. Like they got paperwork. They have receipts. 

They got the receipts. So our boy grows up in this wonderfully idyllic place in childhood. Like I think for the first time, our hero actually had a great upbringing and family life. We’ve had a couple. I can’t think of another off the top of my head. Yeah. 

Theresa: I mean, I’m I see it. Well, I mean, okay, you look at Tallulah. Oh, yeah. You know, she was heavily indulged and spoiled rotten and then put through all time for the rest of the schools. Yeah. 

Theresa: Okay. Yeah. I mean, yeah, at least that. I’ll let I’ll let Tallulah. 

Angie: Okay. Tallulah and Blair, they’re their friends. Okay. So he, I love this part. So he’s had this great family life much later when Blair was an adult and his father passed away, well, relatives would write of quote, Willie Maine saying things like the head of our clan being a true gentleman who was so good hearted, nothing would annoy him. Another would say if he had lived to see his boys come home victorious, it would have been a glorious meeting. 

Right. Um, Maine was raised hunting. He was somewhat of a marksman fishing, playing all sorts of sports. They say that they all excelled at sports, but when they mentioned that, they only mentioned the boys, but something tells me the girls went out and played sports with dad too. Like I don’t think that it was just, just the boys, but specifically the boys are very athletic. 

Um, brothers in arms. The first book about him says that their home was called Mount Pleasant and it sat on 40 acres and it was quote, a singularly musical, convivial place. And that young Blair showed love for Irish folk songs and the works of the singer and poet Percy French, who was a bit of a comedian in his, in his works. In school, he was seen as shy, even bookish, which are a couple of traits you see from him, his whole life. However, on the field of the rugby is where he would really stand out. It’s here that he lets down his guard and his leadership skills really come to the forefront. By the time he’s 18, he’s captain of the local Orange rugby club. This is wild when you consider that there are several far older and more experienced players. When you look at photos of the rugby club from the time, it shows a fresh baby faced man sitting next to Baldwin and Beards. And he’s their appointed leader. Yeah. And, and they are 100% okay with it. 

The club reports that Maine’s quote enthusiasm and thoroughness made him an ideal leader. Again, these traits are going to be seen over and over again, especially once he joins the SIS, but he is also of the age to be going to school. So he gets an education in law at Queens University at Belfast where he qualifies as a solicitor, which is like, I don’t think the man. Yeah. Yeah. 

Yeah. I don’t think he ever like stopped doing something. I think he was just always, always going to be excelling or always going to be trying to excel at whatever it is that he puts his mind to. 

And there’s like no idle time. It’s here that he would also play golf and cricket. And he was pretty fabulous at both, but he just for context here, he’s just over six, two. He’s got this build that the French would later refer to as a l’armoir. 

Theresa: So he’s, he’s built like an arm, war. Yeah. 

Angie: He dude is just big. Um, I can’t stop to get about the fact that he is the same size as my son. And I’m like, yep. Okay. Got it. Um, so he’s got this build and this athleticism to him and he’s got this great long reach and it helps make him the Irish university’s heavyweight boxing champion in 1936. Uh, this checks. Right. 

He’s got all these things going for him by the following year. He would represent Ireland against Wells at lands down road. It’s, this is the final round of that year’s like home nation championship and rugby. 

So that’s kind of a big deal. And then he would go on to be catch for Ireland several more times, perhaps as many as 17, but I get a little differing answers depending on which source I’m looking at. Um, being capped cause I had, I didn’t know what this was. I don’t know much about rugby, but evidently, I don’t think it’s just rugby related, but being kept is kind of like the equivalent of being chosen to compete for your country in the Olympics. So it’s like the highest athletic award you can get. You make the national team. Basically, right? 

Okay. So 1938 rolls round and he is selected to play for the British Lions tour in South Africa. And this is where my love for this guy just really starts to show. So the Lions, they lose their first test, but the South African newspaper, which according to Mr. Lewis is not known to praise athletes outside of South Africa, said that Maine was quote, an outstanding was quote, outstanding in a pack, which gamely and entirely untiringly stood up to the tremendous task. They would also go on to say that Maine was the finest all round forward I had ever seen in his magnificently built for the part in staying power. He has to be seen to be believed. Right. 

Another Irish forward for the game of rugby called Danny clinch said that Maine was the roughest and strongest man he had ever known. Right. Mr. Lewis has this really great visual in one of the books. He says quote, in the third and final test against South Africa at Cape Town famous Newland Stadium, slogan, we never lose at Newlands. There were eight Irishmen, Maine included in the starting lineup. At the end of the match, the crowd lifted the visiting captain Walker and his teammates on their shoulders for the Lions had confounded all expectations, winning the match 21 points to 16. Maine himself was acclaimed as being outstanding in the open and magnificent in defense. 

Theresa: Okay. So let me repeat what I heard so you can correct my understanding. The visiting team comes play so well that the home crowd is so impressed that they hoist the opposing team on their shoulders and basically saying for he’s a really good fellow. 

Angie: That’s that’s exact same visual that I got. Yeah. Okay. Right. 

Theresa: He’s a bit far fetched. I haven’t seen this Disney film before. 

Angie: I think what it is is this, this level of sportsmanship amongst these players. Like these guys come in and they are just these beasts and the South Africans are so impressed, both the plate, the South African players and the South African fans. 

They’re just what do we do but with them on our shoulder? It’s this magnificent match. Well done. Like I think it was just down to sportsmanship. 

That’s my opinion of it. Um, his mates, both at home and for the Lions that they said that he was intensely loyal and the type of loyalty was not often seen. Again, we see this characteristic time and time again in his life. But let me just take a minute to regale you with two of my favorite moments from these trips from this trip to South Africa. 

And I think that these stories really set the stage for the rest of this man’s life. So there’s a dance. He and his team are all requested to attend. 

So it’s this black tie affair, right? Um, he’s bored. He’s so bored. He does not want to stand around. 

He’s not in all the books I read and all the things that I’ve listened to. It’s not that he is not want for the company of women. It’s just that he is shy. 

And until he gets to know you, he doesn’t, like, he doesn’t do that regular gentleman, like, outland just try to get to know every lady in the room sort of saying, like he just, if you’re, if you’re worth his salt, that’s great. If not, that’s also great. He’s fine either way. He would rather go read a book if we’re being honest. Like, so he’s bored. 

He’s at the stance. It’s a black tie event. He is bored to death. So he decides he’s going to go for a stroll and he just simply disappears. Just guys don’t see him again for the rest of the night. In fact, he would not be seen again until mid morning, the next day. Wherein he would be seen strutting into the team’s hotel with his suit all rumbled and bloody, a bit askew with a dead spring block atop his shoulders. 

Theresa: Okay. How was the spring block off? Allow me to tell you, 

Angie: but first he goes straight to his teammate, Jimmy, unwinds room and dumps the animal on his bed announcing fresh meat. Unwind to this point on the trip had spent the whole time whining about the lack of meat on the tour. 

So, Maine’s just solving a problem, right? He, unwind, was not impressed. So Maine hauled the spring block up, back up, carried it out of the window and onto the ledge and hung it outside the room of the South African coach with a note announcing fresh meat. So what had happened was when he got bored of the dance and decided to go for a walk, he is at like a coffee stall, like a street vendor. And he meets a group of locals who invite him to go hunting. So he borrows the rifle, he borrows rifle, shoots the buck and brings it back to the hotel room. But of course, that’s what you do. He is ever pleased with himself and does not see this behavior as odd at all. 

When the Johannesburg Star heard of the incident, they would declare it an act of his full measure of Irish wit and imagination. Like nobody is bothered by this. Live your life, buddy. 

Theresa: I mean, at this lead up, he’s either going to be a serial killer or an incredible person of history. This could go either way. 

Angie: It could be. I promise you, incredible person of history is going to be the outcome. Now, while he is in South Africa, in the rest of the world, the. Sudenton land would become part of Germany, the home of our night. Joseph Manchuk from my story last week. 

Theresa: Okay. I’m starting to see the through lines through lines. Right. Okay. 

Angie: So let me tell you the final tidbit of my story this week. It’s going to shed some light on Maine’s moral compass. So he is a firm believer in the underdog and a fierce adversary of the bully of all sorts. So Maine and his teammate, a Welshman called Bill Travers, they meet a fellow that they call Rooster and they set out to help him. Rooster is a black man and a convict. Now remember they are in South Africa, who was serving seven years for stealing a chicken. This doesn’t sit well with Maine and Travers. So they cut his chains and give them their clothes so he can make a getaway. Unfortunately, Rooster was recaptured and when he returned, he returned home wearing a blazer with Maine’s name sewn into the collar. 

Theresa: Yeah, that’s, that’s going to, that’s going to out him. 

Angie: Oh, no, a little bit, do you think? Maine would be known for always doing what he believed was right, often being law until himself, even if it was opposed to being diplomatic or would not benefit. If it was right, it was the right thing to do, whether it inconvenienced him or not. Now later, this is going to prove invaluable for his men who see his actions and see his behavior as kind of the only way to be. However, because he sort of takes the situation into his own hands, high command can’t deal with it. You can’t tell Patty Maine, no, Patty Maine is going to do what Patty Maine is going to do. And you just have to sit back and watch the fall out. 

Theresa: That doesn’t seem like what you would want for a subordinate and the armed forces. 

Angie: Well, next week, I’ll tell you about his time in number 11 commando and how he finds himself with the SAS. 

Theresa: Oh, I didn’t realize I was giving you a segue. I thought you were going to spend the next several hours giving me story time. 

Angie: I could totally spend the next several hours giving me story time. But I thought that the end of the South African tour would be a great breaking point for my story this week, because this kind of encapsulated his youth and his younger years. So just as a recap, he is 22. He is a lawyer and he is an international rugby player. War has not been particularly called out yet. 

Theresa: So it troubles brewing, but nobody is set to worry. Correct. 

Angie: And this is a man who, for what other reason, is uniquely suited for the job at hand. No, not a psychotic serial killer. I haven’t watched anything but a couple of minutes of SAS Rogue Heroes because I didn’t want to have the research that all of these authors have put in tainted by what Hollywood has decided to describe as any of these people. But when I’m done, when I’m done with all my reading, I will, because it seems fun, but I did watch about five minutes of an episode yesterday or like a compilation of episodes yesterday. And it paints Tidy Main in this light of being just this crazy Berserker type fellow that screams and has this huge attitude problem. 

And that’s not really the real Tidy Main. Like, yeah, he’s been known to have an attitude problem. And yeah, he’s maybe raised his voice once real solidly, but he wasn’t. 

He was a quiet guy you didn’t want to mess with. Okay. Okay, I like this. Yeah. So I need you to know that I love him so much that I actually have his sticker on the back of my surface. 

Theresa: What is his, you can’t show me because that’s the reverse of the screen. I can’t see. All right, you need to take a picture and send it to me. 

Angie: Oh, but I do have a couple of pictures of young Tidy Main. Please and thank you. You’re welcome. Let me. I just realized that I completely forgot that I have this picture of these photos. Hello, share. There we go. My share button disappeared. So this is during his time as a rugby player. 

Theresa: He looks like Captain America. 

Angie: I actually could call him Captain Britain. 

Theresa: But I mean, you know what I mean? Like what’s the actor that plays him? 

Angie: Oh my gosh, Chris Evans. 

Theresa: Yes, he looks like Chris Evans. Like this is Chris Evans father. Notice the black and white. Notice the rugby polo. Yeah. Very hot hair. The man has a neck the size of Scarlet O’Hara’s waist. 

Angie: Yeah. Yeah, that’s a great description right there. So that’s him during his time playing rugby. This, the following picture is probably one of my favorite pictures of him. So this is during his tour in North Africa. 

Theresa: For this one, he’s got kind of a scruffy looking beard. He’s looking a sconce at the camera. He’s got a jumper to borrow the British term for sweater over his uniform shirt. 

Angie: Now, for fun, this picture doesn’t show all of it, but I think what that device is next to him, that he’s standing behind, is the, the SAS developed a massive love affair for the American Jeep Willys and they mount Vickers K machine guns all over them. And I believe that is the back end mount of one of them. However, for funsies, just as a side note, they do not call them willy jeeps like we do. They call them Willis and it makes me smile every time I hear it. 

Theresa: Well, I mean, let’s face it, you know, they’re, they’re a bit more formal than we are. Yep. 

Angie: Those the Willis jeeps. That’s their favorite mode of transportation are the, the willy jeeps. So that’s my, one of my favorite pictures of him. However, the sticker that I have is not that. It’s him wearing like driving. He’s got the goggles on. So the sandstorms don’t get him in the eye. Okay. 

Theresa: I’m here for that. And so I’m assuming I just now get to know him name and you can pray that I don’t do my own research on him. 

Angie: If you do your own research on him, I’ll be simply devastated because I have read so many books and watched so many YouTube’s that you just need to let me tell his story. I will. 

Theresa: Hey, I will. I will. Especially since you’ve been working on this for half a year. Thank you so much. Yeah, I do what I can. 

Angie: Appreciate you. And Ian thanks you as well because maybe now I won’t info Dumbun Ian today because I info Dumbun you. 

Theresa: So what I’m hearing is we’re going to be recording episodes daily. 

Angie: He would appreciate it just so he doesn’t have to hear Patty Maine’s name all day. I’m sure of it. 

Theresa: Meanwhile in couples therapy. 

Angie: First of all, I would like to point out that I know about Patty Maine because he found the story about the pastiche train robbery and by sheer like happenstance while I was looking up information on that Patty Maine’s name was brought up and I was like, who is this this dashing rogue? I need I need to know. So he fully is aware of what he’s done. And he also supports it and buys the books so he can’t complain in couple therapy. 

Theresa: I mean, he can but does he have much of a leg to stand on? 

Angie: Not not a one. It’s like that scene in what happens in Vegas when Ashton Kutcher shows up to therapy and he’s got the black eye but the boss already has the video of him giving it to himself. Yeah. That’s the story. Okay. 

Theresa: Well, if you’ve enjoyed this weird incredible mashup of stories and you’re thinking, I can’t wait to hear the next installment of Eddie Maine, nor is it any man or Patty Maine? 

Angie: Patty Maine, Patty Maine. So he went by Blair Patty is the nickname that every Irishman in World War II got. They were all called Patty, but he didn’t mind it. But Blair was his what his the people closest to him called called him. 

Theresa: Okay. If you’ve enjoyed this mashup of how South Korea did it to themselves and the SAS member that you’ve never heard of and you can’t wait to learn more tune in next week. And actually, you know what? Share this with your favorite unsung hero, the person whose lore you know would be a great nonfiction biography. Yeah, that’d be awesome. Goodbye. 

Theresa: Bye.