Short Stuff: The Ritchie Boys | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and this is short. stuff the greatest generation of. podcasts caught me a mid laugh from a. pre-recording joke from Josh thanks for. mine ears yep and Jerry's too that's. right but she's not laughing no she's. not she's Su uh all right shall we talk. about the Richie boys yeah that was a.

great way to put it because this is a. World War II era story uh about a. generally overlooked group that I was. like I've heard of these guys before and. then 60 Minutes was mentioned I was like. that's what it was I saw a really cool. segment on the Richie boys um there were. 20,000 roughly Intelligence Officers who. were trained in the United States who. may or may not have been born in the. United States um and were trained in. Counter Intelligence aerial photo. analysis all sorts of stuff that you. would to basically run an intelligence.

operation which the US badly needed at. the outset of World War II because we. didn't really have a good amount of that. yeah that's true uh you mentioned some. American Born about 60% were American. Born uh which did include uh include. some Native American soldiers um the. rest were um it's a pretty incredible. story they were uh refugees a lot of. times a lot of times they were um Jewish.

people from Germany refugees I think. about 2800 of which uh were of that. 20,000 that you know they got out just. before or maybe they somehow got lucky. and were granted the right to leave uh. people who may have lost their entire. families uh in Nazi death camps and so. they came to United sometimes uh. Japanese citizens who were whose family. were in in tournament camps and they. signed up for the US Army to help defeat. those Nazis yeah they were in American.

internment camps and still volunteered. for the Army that's really something you. know also Richie girls right yeah there. were wax um women's auxiliary core is. what they what wax stood for but they. were called wax and um there were I mean. just basically anybody you could think. of who had any kind of specialty that. made them kind of international to some. degree uh was probably recruited to do. the 8-week program at Camp Richie which. was a little it started out I guess a. National Guard camp in Maryland.

that the Army took over National Guard. had zero say in that and they turned it. into this highly secretive intelligence. training camp it sounds I mean it's. exactly the kind of place that a movie. is made about yeah I'm surprised there. haven't there hasn't been I'm sure it's. in the works somewhere I believe so it's. um guy Richie's the Richie boys a film. by Guy. Richie coming soon so like you said it's. an it was an 8-week program after that. 8-week program at Richie they were sent. to to England uh to get some more.

advanced intelligence um training going. basically and you know they were in. supposedly every battle every branch and. every unit um that we had in World War. II they spread them out um none other. than JD Salinger was a Richie boy among. uh some other notable people um but they. you know they got a lot of these people. spoke foreign languages or were uh even. taught foreign languages and that was. one of the big benefits of the Richie.

boys is they could they could get in. there uh for an interrogation and they. knew the the local cultures they could. bond with someone say Hey you know let's. have a cigarette and talk about the. local soccer team or football or. whatever they would sayh and before you. know it they're getting more information. than they would by you know tying. someone to a chair and beating them. right um they were also valued like in. the case of JD Salinger because some of. them could really spot a phony a mile. away yeah so they could sus out spies on.

in their own. ranks good one so um there were a few. other things that they learned a lot of. other things actually um like I said. aerial photo analysis which is Handy if. you were a pilot um or if you were in. touch with pilots and wanted to tell. Pilots what to go bomb or how to how to. find things that were camouflaged pretty. well like how to spot like a a I don't. know a plane that was under some of that. cool like uh 3D camouflage netting uhhuh. you would learn that at Camp Richie uh.

if you wanted to learn how to kill a. person with your bare hands there was a. former wrestler who trained people to do. that at Camp Richie like they learned. again anything that you can imagine in a. a World War II training movie montage. this actually went on at Camp Richie. yeah it seems like intelligence was one. of the big focuses uh I think in the end. they got about um 60% of all actionable. Battlefield intelligence came from the. Richie boys and girls and that's what.

they were called by the way um the red. book aka the order of battle of the. German Army was a very big deal and it. was basically just an ongoing um list of. like everything they could learn about. the German uh Army um anytime they would. get documents or any kind of plans or. anything that would go into the red book. or they would you know Counter. Intelligence wise they would get this. stuff and it was you know every unit. that they had who the leaders were where. they battles had fought how those went.

it was just sort of the master book. called The Red Book right I say we take. a break and come back and talk some more. about the Richie boys let's do. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. it s y y ysk.

[Music]. should. [Music]. know all right Chuck there was something. I wanted to toss in um because I opted. for a JD Salinger joke instead of a yes. and to yours okay uh that interrogation. technique you talked about where like. they were able to speak in like the. local dialect and kind of commiserate. with the The Prisoner to interrogate. them I saw another thing that they would. use um would they would dress up as like. Soviet officers imposed as a Soviet.

officer because German um PS were scared. to death about being handed over to the. Soviets CU yeah there were bad bad. things awaiting them in the hands of the. Soviets at a p camp so the like a Richie. boys would show up dress the Soviet. officers saying like I'm going to take. this prisoner uh into custody and the. Americans would be like no no we think. we can talk to him you you go away the. German would suddenly be very talkative. about whatever the American interrogator.

wanted to know pretty sick yeah they. learned that at camper. Richie that's a new t-shirt I learned it. at Camp Richie where where did the name. camp or where did the name Richie boys. come from I mean obviously it came from. Camp Richie but do they call themselves. that no I think once they got to England. it was like oh one of the Richie boys. has come over for more training that. kind of thing MH mhm does that sound. about right it does and there were like. specific I mean specific stories that.

emerged from this some of the ones that. like really stand out are were like you. said there were German Jewish men who. fled the Holocaust whose families were. killed in the Holocaust who arrived in. America as German Nationals volunteered. for the Army went to cambri and then. went back to Europe to fight the. Nazis yeah one of those guys name was uh. Ernst Kramer uh he was 18 years old and. he was at uh buen Wald or binal excuse. me and got out was very lucky got an.

affidavit for releasee to go to the. United States got here and was like sign. me up and um was a very you know. valuable Richie boy I guess um he would. write these uh pamphlets in German um. urging German soldiers to surrender uh. and I believe he even set up a couple of. newspapers uh that you know in these. German cities that had been just wiped. out and bombed out uh after the war was. over yeah that was a big part of. Liberation was densification and to get.

the German people behind the the process. of densification you basically had to I. mean one of the ways you did that was. through the media so they would set up. independent newspapers in different. towns that would be run by you know some. of the Richie boys that was a really. important part of it um there was. another one a guy named David Akira. Itami he's one of those people who's who. himself along with his family was. interned in a a Japanese internment camp. here in the United States who. volunteered to fight for the Army and he.

ended up going on to become the lead. interpreter at the Japanese war crimes. trials in Tokyo wow yeah which was a a. really big deal uh another big deal you. know we mentioned the Richie girls there. were about 200 of those that were from. the you mentioned the The Wack the. women's auxiliary Corp um there were. also 22 uh women who are instructors at. Camp Richie um and a couple of them you. know were really really notable um one's. name was Sally Davis uh she trained in. the order of the battle served with.

MacArthur and then a woman named Lillian. uh Tomer in Europe um was Eisenhower's. um polish interpreter his personal. interpreter and got a bronze star oh. yeah that's pretty. great oh Bron star the thing is the. Richie boys were largely uh I don't know. if it's secret they were certainly. secret during the the war but they. weren't really well known until the mid. 2000s um I think there was a German docu. in 2005 that really started to get.

people talking about them so it's only. fairly recently that um that they've. started to kind of get commendations in. 2022 the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. presented uh Richie boys that. collectively with the E Eli visel award. which is their highest honor and I think. in Congress there's a um a law no what's. the word a bill.

I had to I had to really dig back to my. um Schoolhouse yeah that's sitting on. Capitol Hill that um honors the Richie. boys and awards all of them the. Congressional gold medal and it hasn't. passed yet. strangely yeah well 65 of them got. silver stars uh many many bronze stars. but again at the time it was just like. this was just someone else from the unit. uh they weren't designated as you know. this special group. right uh what else you yeah I got.

nothing else that's a a quickie overview. on what will surely be a movie yeah for. sure look for it uh and also in the. meantime I'm sure you can find that 60. Minute segment somewhere it's definitely. worth watching on the Richie boys yeah. get ready uh Benedict Cumberbatch you. you'll be leading the troops in England. yeah can you do your Benedict. Cumberbatch talking about Richie boys. coming along to be trained no I don't. even know what he sounds like uh pretty. much what you did earlier oh okay he. sounds like whatever you want him to. sound like that guy can do some pretty.

good dialects and accents yeah although. I don't his American accent in uh the. doctor strange stuff is a little wacky I. like those movies but oh yeah I don't. know okay well since we started going. Way Off Script and talking about benick. Cumberbatch and since there's not even a. script in the first place they think. short stuff is. out stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart radio for more. podcasts iHeart Radio visit the iHeart. Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you.

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