WW2 On QI! Interesting Facts You Didn't Know! Funny and interesting facts On QI About World War II! Featuring Stephen Fry, Alan Davies, Sandi Toksvig and others! Comment your favourite moments below! #qi #worldwar2 #britishcomedy
Sorry to break it to you. That was everybody's grandad. Except mine. He never cracked a smile in 86 years. I shot an elephant in my pyjamas How he got in my pyjamas I'll never know. Not now anyway
First segment: Stephen getting the story right, but the invasion wrong- The Man Who Never Was was misdirection between Sicily and Greece in the Mediterranean theatre.
I'm so pleased that this comment is the first on the list (and not even pinned). And the submarine that dropped his body in the water was the USS Serif, one of the few vessels to ever carry the title of both HMS & USS.
All organised by the same department that Ian Fleming allegedly / apparently worked for too, but then there are so many stories about him and what he did, I'm sure that he was delighted to have so many stories be circulated about him.
@@kiwitrainguy Thanks for the extra info. Interesting. I think it was Seraph rather than Serif, but close enough for me to find it. According to wiki it was re-named to carry the French general Giraud and his staff to meet Eisenhower. He'd refused to board a British vessel so it was 're-badged'. He wasn't fooled by the fake accents of the crew though. After Mers El Kebir many French people were not overly keen on the British. The same emotional baggage was not there when dealing with the Americans.
Point to note:- if you baste carrots in butter & roast them in foil, they’re very sweet & tasty. Boiling them does no justice. (Also, onions are sweet too)
Well grown carrots are sweet regardless. I dare say that supermarkets buy on uniformity and weight rather than what some of we peasants consider to be quality.
The gravestone of "Major William Martin RM" in Huelva was changed to read "Glyndwr Michael. Served as Major William Martin RM" after the British Government identified him in 1998.
There was a shortage of silk during WW2. I remember my Mum telling me about gravy browning and drawing seams on legs. When my Grandad was demobbed from the RAF, he brought back a pilots escape map - it was made of silk and quite colourful. So Mum could use it as a headscarf. Still have it to remember them both by...
@@EndertheWeek In my opinion, the most interesting use of nylon in WW2 was as the string that held German dogtags to the neck, as almost 90 years later, when the skeletons are dug up, the red nylon chord looks brand new.
My friend Lilian bought a some escape maps just after the end of the war in Europe. Silk was still short because it was being used for parachutes in the Asian front. She made herself a complete set of silk underwear and a nightie. I think her sister donated it to the Imperial War Museum when Lillian died.
After Leo Marks (head of codes at SOE) finally got rid of the disasterous 'Poem code', he had one-time code keys printed on silk for radio-operators to use. Special emphasis had to made in training to ensure these codes were cut away and destroyed after use (meaning the Gestapo couldn't torture keys out of agents to read their previous traffic, to overcome their reluctance to burn such a valuable material! Silk was readily concealable in street-searches. Marks got his way in the production of these by stating that the choice was "Between Silk, and Cyanide" - an excellent and occasionally amusing post-war memoire.
I was very privileged to have as a very good friend a man named Peter Martin who was the son of Major (Captain) William Martin who worked with Ian Fleming during WWII, and was the given name of the deceased Welsh man. William agreed to his name being used to add significant weight to the subterfuge. William was actually sent to the US under another name while his name was being used in the subterfuge. To make things even more convincing, William's wife, mother of Peter who was a young boy, was informed of the death of William. Peter said: "When the war ended, my father returned and had a lot of explaining to do to his mother."
Pretty sure that the poor fellow dropped at the coast of Gibralta, was before the invasion of Sicily. So the Germans thought the landing would be in Greece.
@@lexdunn4160 well I did a google search and got this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat. If you still think Im wrong please send a link to a source. Would really appreatiate it.
@@lexdunn4160 I did a google search and got this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat. If you still think I´m wrong, could you please send a link to a source so I can get my facts straight. Would really appreatiate it.
@@lexdunn4160 According to Wikipedia, Operation Mincemeat was before the Sicily invasion.. If you have better info, could you please tell me where to obtain that info, so I can get my facts straight. thx
Fun fact: the flat where Alois and Bridgette Hitler lived was destroyed in the last German air raid on Liverpool of the war, and the buildings were never rebuilt - it's an open field. If you want to look it up, it's the junction of Upper Stanhope Street and Carter Street, Liverpool. For some reason there's a high density of religious buildings in the immediate area, including a huge synagogue
The Quaker pacifist lady: "We should have dealt with Hitler before the war". How? What should Chamberlain have done differently when appeasement didn't work? Churchill knew it wouldn't work.
That’s not quite what she said. She didn’t mention “Hitler” specifically. She also wasn’t talking about “appeasement”. You need to think earlier than that. She’s talking about the conditions in Germany that WE created that allowed Hitler to come to power. We shouldn’t have neutered Germany after the First World War. By doing what we did (severe punishment which the US wanted to town down but the UK and France wanted revenge) we created the perfect conditions for lunatics to come in, blame the Jews for their economic woes, began a fascist movement that promised to fix it all whilst violently silencing political dissent… If you don’t understand what she means by dealing with it BEFORE the war started, you shouldn’t really be commenting on history because it’s pretty clear you understand too little of it.
@@Roz-y2dit makes perfect sense if you have some historical knowledge of the post-WW1 environment created by the allies that allowed Hitler to rise to power…
What's the difference between a rock musician and a jazz musician? A rock musician plays three chords to a thousand people and a jazz musician plays a thousand chords to three people. 😝
Jazz - A group of musicians all playing different tunes at once, a drummer keeping time with no-one in particular, and someone blowing random notes on a trumpet.
Sadly, Fry got his facts wrong on carrots. Cunningham flew his nightfighter over Britain, not Germany, and the propaganda was nothing to do with bombers, just nightfighters (the propaganda preceded the use of radar in bombers).
A few points of trivia. The book 'Night Fighter' written by Cunningham's radar operator (Rawnsley) is one of the best true WW2 stories. It combines genuine adventure, with a detailed description of the desperate 'continuous contest of measures and countermeasure of technology' between the RAF and Luftwaffe, tinged with the human dimension of dealing with the fact that your survival was fairly unlikely. Never made into a movie because the action at night would be very difficult to transfer to the screen. Cunningham went on to become a test pilot after WW2. The last aicraft he test flew was Concorde.
@@ripdbtpoo1441 Another fine book is 'Enemy Coast Ahead' written by Guy Gibson (who led the dambuster raid) whilst on leave during the war after the raid. He talks about Barnes Wallace and the bomb but in a very careful way to not reveal what he is actually talking about. Apparently, he toured America on a propaganda tour and when asked how many missions he had flown they were astounded to hear 175 since American pilots expected to be replaced after 25. Gibson went back to active duty and did not survive. It was censored but I have read that an uncensored version has been printed since. p.s. He also flew night fighters at one period but could never find the enemy.
There is a German verb "eichen" meaning to gauge, to adjust or to calibrate. So the name Eichmann could also be a profession surname like smith or taylor. But I'm no expert in etymology...🤔
Onomastics (or onomatology in older texts) is the study of proper names, including their etymology, history, and use. Not many people know this - including me till I looked it up.
Middle Wallop, did my basic tech training on helicopters there, also my upgraders. Home of 70 Ac Wksp and D & T Sqn. Also home of the AAC. nearby are Nether Wallop and Over Wallop. It was also, I believe, the largest grass airfield in WWII.
Minor correction re Monty only allowed Churchill to smoke. He also allowed King George to smoke in his presence. Ike, who was a chain smoker and Monty’s superior could also I suspect smoke in Monty’s presence too.
The French did have a bad reputation re keeping secrets. De Gaulle was disliked by the other Allied leaders and even went to Moscow where he made agreements with Stalin without discussing them first with Churchill and Roosevelt. He was determined that France would not be dominated by Britain and the USA and that as soon as the D Day invasion began his French supporters would take over, not any other political group.
@@nigeh5326 But at the same time he couldn't comprehend why other countries didn't care about France as much as he did. I believe in 'Their Finest Hour' by Churchill he talks about the French requesting the entire British air force several times and genuinely being angry when they wouldn't give it to them. French arrogance blows me away.
He liked dogs and wanted to increase the old age pension. Nobody is entirely evil and certainly, he was not voted for and widely admired for being evil.
John Cunningham, went on to become the chief test pilot for DeHaviland aircraft company in Hatfield Hertfordshire. My dad meet him a few times in the BAe systems social club . The factory closed in 1990
@@HALLish-jl5mo yeah I see what you mean, but that’s more just misrepresentation of information, which they do all the time. Like when they say that WW2 technically ended in 1985 or whatever. This is just objectively wrong though.
Because what to people interested in an area is obvious, is to the great majority unknown. So unless you are knowledgeable about Operation Mincemeat you will never realise the researcher has cocked up. A lot of shows do it. Like you I find it irritating.
The ordinary soldiers did know at least a few days in advance of D-Day (they might not have known the exact day, but they knew it was very very imminent). My Gran's brother was sent to visit his family on embarkation leave and told to tell them "oh I just have a few days' leave" but not tell them why. While home, he told my Gran "when you here the lads have landed in France in the next few days, I'll be there- don't tell anyone!". My Gran was only 15 at the time and she felt the weight of responsibility of knowing a national secret. It terrified her but she didn't tell anyone, even her parents. Even when the news started coming through on the radio, she still didn't tell anyone she'd had advance warning. Poor kid! It makes me wonder how many other families got told a few days in advance by visiting soldiers saying "don't tell anyone, but...".
My grandmother and her sister grew up in Kidderminster and they used to talk to the many Canadians stationed not far from them. Then a few days before the invasion they all disappeared and everyone guessed they had gone to the coast to embark. It must have been the same for many Brits one day there are troops everywhere next day they’ve gone. It’s amazing how good the double cross system worked to keep the secret from the Nazis. If Nazi spies had been free in the population and had managed to warn Hitler and be believed it could have cost thousands more lives.
@@nigeh5326 Back then it was easy to tell a local from a foreign agent. Not so much now. I wonder how it would all pan out these days. I also wonder what is happening either side of the Russia Ukraine war. There must be many strange stories yet to be told.
"Dead person ringing" has already happened. Numbers used to be recycled after 6 months; after an incident with a young person, two decades ago, it was extended to 2 years.
Easily done for anyone who isn't British. For those of us in Australia while we did fight on the western front in WWI it was more about Gallipoli and then WW2 it was the Pacific theatre. Both world wars had more participants then just Britain and Germany so your statement that 99% would jump out the window is false.
Haven't watched a second but if sandi is in this I bet it takes her under a minute to redirect the discussion to include some Danish or vaguely scandinavian "interesting point"
We like infixes e.g. "abso - bloody - lutely!", as an emphasis. Stephen Fry has taken that into the territory of the absurd and we find it funny. He first did this kind of bit back in the days of 'Fry and Laurie' (Hugh Laurie was his colleague). So, in part, I think many people in the audience remember how they did 'that kind of stuff' - the verbose and ridiculous - so well and it's still funny. Hope that helps.
Absolutely, it was people going to fight wars that were able to create conditions for a sense of stability and peace. A pacifist like vegetarians see things in very simplistic terms... A or B is bad. Therefore, I'll find100 reasons why
She's actually the polar opposite of naive. How unwell is your brain that you can't tolerate someone baldly saying that killing is bad without telling yourself that she must be stupid?
If nothing else, pacifists encourage us to think about the causes of conflict and how to militate them. Not a bad thing really. Now back to fart jokes!
At the moment it doesn’t but hopefully after the election the next government will employ more people to process claims in the countries migrants come from and in a centre built in France. They will also increase the funding to the National Crime Agency to stop the criminal gangs making a fortune from cross channel migrants
The Man who never was was a Scot who had died of pneumonia (so lungs wet as if drowned) and who's father gave permission for his body to be used on the condition he had a proper Christian funeral -which he did - and his grave is in Spain with his real name on it.
You and I know that . Its probable that someone at the BBC was also aware. But do not expect left wing twits who rather make fun of those who allowed them to be born.
Oh dear, Alan: the high trouser was to make sure that your shirt didn't show beneath your waistcoat in a 3-piece suit. It also kept your tummy and back warm in chilly England.
I actually got a call on the number of a dead collegue, who was dead for about a decade then, that had indeed been recycled. It was off course a wrong number being dialed by the current user of that phone number. But I was sure surprised when that number came up on the mobile. And after the call I realised: Yes, off course, the phone companies recycle the numbers.
I quite miss the days when QI had actual intelligent comedians and good questions. I may be biased since I grew up watching QI with Stephen Fry, and I will admit I am not a fan of Sandy and the newer seasons.
In my first year at university in the nineties we had to research the swing kids and watch the 1993 movie about them. It was from reading about the swing kids that I first learned about the white rose resistance organisation in Germany.
@@Roz-y2d In Britain mincemeat has nothing to do with meat. It is a savoury mixture of currants and the like used in mince pies - which have nothing at all to do with mince. Mince being ground actual meat or, the way Stephen Fry walks.
hitler had the mustache because the extended bits got stuck outside his helmet during a mustard gas raid when he was a soldier in WW1, they got burned and he had to cut them off
I rember Fry asking what percentage of R.A.F pilots in WW2 went to public schools. The answer was (surprisingly) small, but i couldn't help noticing that 100% of the guests went to public school. So much for social equality!
The rate of attrition was such that the RAF were taking anyone who had any aptitude to fly, and in some cases less than 10 hours training in a Hurricane or Spitfire, were sent up against the Luftwaffe. Schooling was less important than bums in cockpits.
There was, a few years ago a 'Guardian list' that had all the Guardian newspaper columnists and their schools. It turns out that diversity does not include diverse education.
Shame they did no research on the man with no name. He dies from pneumonia, which laeftw after in his lungs, and asked his mother if they could use his body.
