#operation jedburgh

This week, we brought in a guest. Tom recommended The Dirty Dozen to us, he has loved it since childhood. We had two and a half hours to either confirm his taste or destroy his confidence. Results were mixed. Kidding, Tom is in fact a ton of fun.

The film follows twelve military convicts sent on a near-impossible mission behind enemy lines before D-Day, promised a pardon if they survive. We all agreed Jefferson was the best character.

Along the way, get into Operation Jedburgh and the SOE teams who dropped into occupied France, the real-life Filthy 13 from the 101st Airborne who inspired the story, and the German radio broadcasts of Lord Haw-Haw that Allied civilians were secretly tuning in to for casualty information. It got surprisingly relevant to the present day.

We also spent a solid amount of time on Donald Sutherland, who is billed in the bottom six of this film and somehow ends up with more presence than half the top six. Robert Aldrich apparently pointed at him across the table and said "you with the big ears." The rest is history.

Lieutenant John K. Singlaub de l'OSS – 1940's

Paratrooper spies. Who infiltrated Nazi France, Belgium, and the Netherlands to assist in the movement of the Allies forces. 

They were called Operation Jedburgh and their motto was “ Surprise, Kill, Vanish” 

A “Jed” team consisted of two to four men: some combination of an American OSS officer, a British officer, a Free French officer or enlisted man, and sometimes a Belgian, Dutch, or Canadian soldier.